Name	Jay Leno
Birth name	James Douglas Muir Leno
Birth date	April 28, 1950
Height
Birth place	New Rochelle, New York, U.S.
Medium	Television, Film, Stand up
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Emerson College
Active	1973–present
Genre	Observational comedy, Political satire
Subject	American culture, Everyday life
Influences	Johnny Carson, Robert Klein, Alan King, George Carlin, Don Rickles, Bob Newhart, Rodney Dangerfield
Influenced	Dennis Miller
Website	The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Spouse	Mavis Leno (1980–present)
Signature	Jay Leno Autograph.svg
Notable work	''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' (host, 1992–2009)''The Jay Leno Show''(host, 2009–2010)''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' (host, 2010–present )

}} James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno (born 1950) is an American stand-up comedian and television host.

From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno''. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled ''The Jay Leno Show'', which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. (Eastern Time, UTC-5), also on NBC. After ''The Jay Leno Show'' was canceled in January 2010 amid a host controversy, Leno returned to host ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' on March 1, 2010.

Early life

Jay Leno was born in New Rochelle, New York, on April 28, 1950. His mother, Catherine (née Muir; 1911–1993), a homemaker, was born in Greenock, Scotland, and came to the United States at age 11. Her schooling was limited and as a result she prized her children's successes. Leno's father, Angelo (1910–1994), who worked as an insurance salesman, was born in New York to immigrants from Flumeri, Italy. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, and although his high school guidance counselor recommended that he drop out of school, he later obtained a Bachelor's degree in speech therapy from Emerson College, where he started a comedy club in 1973. Leno's siblings include his late older brother, Patrick, who was a Vietnam veteran and a lawyer.

Career

''The Tonight Show''

Starting in 1987, Leno was a regular substitute host for Johnny Carson on ''The Tonight Show''. In 1992, he replaced Carson as host amid controversy with David Letterman, who had been hosting ''Late Night with David Letterman'' since 1982 (aired after The Tonight Show), who many had expected to be Carson's successor. The story of this turbulent transition was later turned into a book and a movie. Leno continued to perform as a stand-up comedian throughout his tenure on ''The Tonight Show''. In 1998, Leno competed in a tag team match at a WCW pay per view called Road Wild. In 2001, he voiced The Crimson Chin, a superhero in the Nickelodeon animated series The Fairly OddParents and continues to do so today.

In 2004, Leno signed a contract extension with NBC which would keep him as host of ''The Tonight Show'' until 2009. Later in 2004, Conan O'Brien signed a contract with NBC under which O'Brien would become the host of ''The Tonight Show'' in 2009, replacing Leno at that time.

During the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, Leno was accused of violating WGA guidelines by writing his own monologue for ''The Tonight Show''. While NBC and Leno claim there were private meetings with the WGA where there was a secret agreement allowing this, the WGA denied such a meeting. Leno answered questions in front of the Writers Guild of America, West trial committee in February 2009 and June 2009, and when the WGAW published its list of strike-breakers on 11 August 2009, Leno was not on the list.

Leno said in 2008 that he was saving all of his income from ''The Tonight Show'' and living solely off his income from stand-up comedy.

On April 23, 2009, Leno checked himself into a hospital with an undisclosed illness. He was released the following day and returned to work on Monday, April 27. The two subsequently cancelled ''Tonight Show'' episodes for April 23 and April 24 were Leno's first in 17 years as host. Initially, the illness that caused the absence was not disclosed, but later Leno told People magazine that the ailment was exhaustion.

Michael Jackson trial

In the 2005 trial of Michael Jackson over allegations of child molestation, Leno appeared as a defense witness (many celebrity defense witnesses had been expected, but Leno was one of the few whose testimony was actually needed). In his testimony regarding a call by the accuser, Leno testified that he never called the police, that no money was asked for, and there was no coaching — but that the calls seemed unusual and scripted.

As a result, Leno was initially not allowed to continue telling jokes about Jackson or the case, which had been a fixture of ''The Tonight Show'''s opening monologue in particular. But he and his show's writers used a legal loophole by having Leno briefly step aside while stand-in comedians took the stage and told jokes about the trial. Stand-ins included Roseanne Barr, Drew Carey, Brad Garrett, and Dennis Miller among others.

Succession by Conan O'Brien and ''The Jay Leno Show''

Because Leno's show continued to lead all late-night programming in the Nielsen ratings, the pending expiration of Leno's contract led to speculation about whether he would become a late-night host for another network after his commitment to NBC expired. Leno left ''The Tonight Show'' on Friday May 29, 2009, and Conan O'Brien took over on June 1, 2009.

On December 8, 2008, it was reported that Leno would remain on NBC and move to a new hour-long show at 10 p.m. Eastern Time (9 p.m. Central Time) five nights a week. This show follows a similar format to ''The Tonight Show'', tapes at the same lot, and retains many of Leno's most popular segments. ''Late Night'' host Conan O'Brien was his successor on ''The Tonight Show''.

Jay Leno's new show, titled ''The Jay Leno Show'', debuted on September 14, 2009. It was announced at the Television Critics Association summer press tour that it would feature one or two celebrities, the occasional musical guest, and keep the popular "Headlines" segments, which would air near the end of the show. First guests included Jerry Seinfeld, Oprah Winfrey (via satellite), and a short sit-down with Kanye West discussing his controversy at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

Timeslot conflict and return to ''The Tonight Show''

In their new roles, neither O'Brien nor Leno succeeded in delivering the viewing audiences the network anticipated. On January 7, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that beginning March 1, 2010, Jay Leno would move from his 10pm weeknight time slot to 11:35pm, due to a combination of pressure from local affiliates whose newscasts were suffering, and both Leno's and O'Brien's poor ratings. Leno's show would be shortened from an hour to 30 minutes. All NBC late night programming would be preempted by the 2010 Winter Olympics between February 15 and February 26. This would move ''The Tonight Show'' to 12:05am, a post-midnight timeslot for the first time in its history. O'Brien's contract stipulated that NBC could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty (a clause put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions).

On January 10, NBC confirmed that they would move Jay Leno out of primetime as of February 12 and intended to move him to late night as soon as possible. TMZ reported that O'Brien was given no advance notice of this change, and that NBC offered him two choices: an hour-long 12:05am time slot, or the option to leave the network. On January 12, O'Brien issued a press release that stated he would not continue with ''Tonight'' if it moved to a 12:05am time slot, saying, "I believe that delaying ''The Tonight Show'' into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. ''The Tonight Show'' at 12:05 simply isn’t ''The Tonight Show.''"

On January 21, it was announced that NBC had struck a deal with O'Brien. It was decided that O'Brien would leave ''The Tonight Show''. The deal was made that O'Brien would receive a $33 million payout and that his staff of almost 200 would receive $12 million in the departure. O'Brien's final episode aired on Friday, January 22. Leno returned as host of ''The Tonight Show'' following the 2010 Winter Olympics on March 1, 2010.

On July 1, 2010, ''Variety'' reported that total viewership for Jay Leno's ''Tonight Show'' had dropped from 5 million to 4 million for the second quarter of 2010, compared to the same period in 2009. Although this represented the lowest second-quarter ratings for the show since 1992, ''Tonight'' was still the most-watched late night program, ahead of ABC's ''Nightline'' (3.7 million) and David Letterman's ''Late Show'' (3.3 million). Ratings over the following summer, when compared to the same period in 2009 with O'Brien hosting ''The Tonight Show'' (including O'Brien's highly rated debut), showed that while total viewership was 12% higher for Leno, viewership in the important "adults aged 18-49" demographic was 23% lower. NBC ratings specialist Tom Bierbaum commented that due to the host being out of late night television for a period of time and the subsequent 2010 Tonight Show conflict, Leno's ratings fall was "not a surprise at all".

Public image

Criticism of Leno

Leno has faced heated criticism and some negative publicity for his perceived role in the 2010 ''Tonight Show'' timeslot conflict. Critics have pointed to a 2004 ''Tonight Show'' clip, wherein Leno claimed he would allow O'Brien to take over without incident. At the time, Leno stated he didn't want O'Brien to leave for a competing network, adding, "I'll be 59 when [the switch occurs], that's five years from now. There's really only one person who could have done this into his 60s, and that was Johnny Carson; I think it's fair to say I'm no Johnny Carson." Leno also described ''The Tonight Show'' as a dynasty, saying "you hold it and hand it off to the next person. And I don't want to see all the fighting..." At the end of the segment, he said, "Conan, it's yours! See you in five years, buddy!"

Actor and comedian Patton Oswalt was among the first celebrities to openly voice disappointment with Leno, saying, "Comedians who don't like Jay Leno now, and I'm one of them, we're not like, 'Jay Leno sucks;' it's that we're so hurt and disappointed that one of the best comedians of our generation... willfully has shut the switch off." Rosie O'Donnell has been among O'Brien's most vocal and vehement supporters, calling Leno a "bully" and his recent actions "classless and kind of career-defining." Howard Stern, who has been openly critical of Leno for years, has become even more so in the wake of the controversy.

Bill Zehme, the co-author of Leno's autobiography ''Leading with My Chin'', told the ''LA Times'': "The thing Leno should do is walk, period. He's got everything to lose in terms of public popularity by going back. People will look at him differently. He'll be viewed as the bad guy."

Support for Leno

NBC Sports head executive and former ''Saturday Night Live'' producer Dick Ebersol spoke out against all who had recently mocked Leno, calling them "chicken-hearted and gutless."

Jeff Gaspin also defended Leno: "This has definitely crossed the line. Jay Leno is the consummate professional and one of the hardest-working people in television. It's a shame that he's being pulled into this."

Paul Reiser and Jerry Seinfeld are two of the number of celebrities to have voiced support for Leno.

Responding to the mounting criticism, Leno claimed that NBC had assured him that O'Brien was willing to accept the proposed arrangement and then would not let either host out of his contract. Leno also said that the situation was "all business." He appeared on the January 28 episode of ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' in an attempt to repair some of the damage done to his public image.

Personal life

Leno has been married since 1980 to Mavis Leno; they have no children.

He is known for his prominent jaw, which has been described as mandibular prognathism. In the book ''Leading with My Chin'' he stated that he is aware of surgery that could reset his mandible, but does not wish to endure a prolonged healing period with his jaws wired shut.

Leno is dyslexic. He claims to sleep only four to five hours each night. Leno does not drink or smoke, nor does he gamble. He spends most of his free time visiting car collections or working in his private garage.

Leno reportedly earns $32 million each year; his total net worth is unknown, but has been estimated to be at least $150 million.

Charity

In 2001, along with his wife, he donated $100,000 to the Feminist Majority's campaign to stop gender apartheid in Afghanistan, to educate the public regarding the plight of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Mavis Leno is on the board of the Feminist Majority.

In 2009, he donated $100,000 to a scholarship fund at Salem State College in honor of Lennie Sogoloff. Mr. Sogoloff gave Leno his start at his jazz club, Lennie's-on-the-Turnpike.

Vehicle collection

Leno owns approximately 100 vehicles, not including about 90 motorcycles. He also has a website called "Jay Leno's Garage," which contains video clips and photos of his automobiles in detail.

He has a regular column in ''Popular Mechanics'' which showcases his car collection and gives advice about various automotive topics, including restoration and unique models, such as his jet-powered motorcycle and solar-powered hybrid. Leno also writes occasional "Motormouth" articles for ''The Sunday Times'', reviewing high-end sports cars and giving his humorous take on automotive matters.

References

External links

Official ''Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' web site

Jay Leno's Car Collection

Jay Leno's Columns at Octane magazine

New York Times on Leno's affiliation with McPherson College

Live performance videos from the Tonight Show

Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American voice actors Category:Emerson College alumni Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Car collectors Category:Motorcycle Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Andover, Massachusetts Category:People from New Rochelle, New York Category:SEMA Members Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American people of Scottish descent

am:ጀይ ለኖ ar:جاي لينو bg:Джей Лено cs:Jay Leno da:Jay Leno de:Jay Leno es:Jay Leno eo:Jay Leno fa:جی لنو fr:Jay Leno gl:Jay Leno id:Jay Leno is:Jay Leno it:Jay Leno he:ג'יי לנו hu:Jay Leno nl:Jay Leno ja:ジェイ・レノ no:Jay Leno pl:Jay Leno pt:Jay Leno ro:Jay Leno ru:Лено, Джей simple:Jay Leno fi:Jay Leno sv:Jay Leno th:เจย์ เลโน tr:Jay Leno zh:杰·雷诺

name	Johnny Carson
birth name	John William Carson
birth date	October 23, 1925
birth place	Corning, Iowa, U.S.
death date	January 23, 2005
death place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
nationality	American
active	1950–1994
signature	Johnny Carson Signature.svg
influences	Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Bob Hope, Laurel and Hardy, Red Skelton, George Burns, Milton Berle, Steve Allen, Charlie Chaplin, Don Rickles, Michael Gough
influenced	Ray Combs, Ellen DeGeneres, Kathy Griffin, Bill Hicks, Jay Leno, David Letterman, George Lopez, Bill Maher, Conan O'Brien, Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling
spouse	Joan Morrill Wolcott (1949–1963)Joanne Copeland (1963–1972)Joanna Holland (1972–1985)Alexandra Mass (1987–2005, his death)
notable work	Host of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''

}} John William "Johnny" Carson (October 23, 1925 January 23, 2005) was an American television host and comedian, known as host of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' for 30 years (1962–1992). Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the ''Television Academy Hall of Fame'' in 1987. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992, and received Kennedy Center Honors in 1993.

Although his show was already hugely successful by the end of the 1960s, it was during the 1970s that he became an American icon and the "best guest" in American homes up until his retirement in 1992. Carson adopted a casual, conversational approach with extensive interaction with guests, an approach pioneered by Arthur Godfrey and previous ''Tonight Show'' hosts Steve Allen and Jack Paar. Late night hosts David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Craig Ferguson, and Jimmy Fallon have all cited Carson's influence on their late-night talk shows, which greatly resemble Carson's show in format and tone.

Early life and career

Carson was born in Corning, Iowa, on October 23, 1925 to Homer "Kit" Lloyd Carson, a power company manager, and Ruth Hook Carson. He grew up in the nearby towns of Avoca, Clarinda and Red Oak in southwest Iowa, before moving to Norfolk, Nebraska at the age of eight. At the age of 12 Carson found a book on magic at a friend's house and immediately purchased a mail-order magician's kit. He debuted as "The Great Carsoni" at 14 and was paid $3; many other performances at local picnics and country fairs followed.

After attending Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, he joined the U.S. Navy on June 8, 1943, received V-12 officer training at Columbia University, and continued to perform magic. Commissioned an ensign late in the war, Carson was assigned to the USS ''Pennsylvania'' in the Pacific. He was en route to the combat zone aboard a troopship when the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war. Carson served as a communications officer in charge of decoding encrypted messages, and said that the high point of his military career was performing a magic trick for United States Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal.

Carson then attended the University of Nebraska in Lincoln where he joined Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, continued performing magic (now paid $25 per appearance), wrote a thesis on the structure of Jack Benny's comedy routines, and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in radio and speech with a minor in physics in 1949.

He began his broadcasting career in 1950 at WOW radio and television in Omaha, Nebraska. Carson soon hosted a morning television program called ''The Squirrel's Nest''. One of his routines involved interviewing pigeons on the roof of the local courthouse that would allegedly report on the political corruption they had seen. Carson supplemented his income by serving as master of ceremonies at local church dinners, attended by some of the same politicians and civic leaders that he had lampooned on the radio.

In 1951 Carson visited California and unsuccessfully sought work. The wife of one of the political figures he spoofed owned stock in a radio station in Los Angeles and referred Carson to her brother, who was influential in the emerging television market in Southern California, and later that year Carson went to work at CBS-owned Los Angeles television station KNXT. He would later joke that he owed his success to the birds of Omaha. In 1953 comic Red Skelton — a fan of Carson's "cult success" low-budget sketch comedy show, ''Carson's Cellar'' (1951 to 1953) on KNXT — asked Carson to join his show as a writer. In 1954 Skelton during rehearsal accidentally knocked himself unconscious an hour before his live show began, and Carson successfully filled in for him. In 1955 Jack Benny invited Carson to appear on one of his programs, during the opening and closing segments. Carson imitated Benny and claimed that Benny had copied his gestures. Benny, however, predicted that Carson would have a successful career as a comedian. Carson hosted several shows besides ''Carson's Cellar'', including the game show ''Earn Your Vacation'' (1954) and the variety show ''The Johnny Carson Show'' (1955–1956). He was a regular panelist on the original ''To Tell the Truth'' until 1962. After the prime time ''The Johnny Carson Show'' failed, he moved to New York City to host ''Who Do You Trust?'' (1957–1962), formerly known as ''Do You Trust Your Wife?''. In 1958 he appeared as a guest star in an episode entitled "Do You Trust Your Wife" on NBC's short-lived variety show, ''The Polly Bergen Show''. It was on ''Who Do You Trust?'' that Carson met his future sidekick, Ed McMahon. Although he saw moving to daytime as hurting his career, ''Who Do You Trust?'' was a success. It was the first show where he could ad lib and interview guests, and because of Carson's on-camera wit, the show became "the hottest item on daytime television" during his five years there.

''The Tonight Show''

NBC's ''Tonight'' was the late-night counterpart to its early-morning show ''Today''. Originating in 1953 with host Steve Allen, ''Tonight'' was somewhat experimental at the time, because no television network had yet attempted late-night programming. ''Tonight'' was successful, and when Allen moved on to prime-time comedy-variety shows, Jack Paar replaced him as host of ''Tonight''. Paar left the show in 1962.

Johnny Carson's success on ''Who Do You Trust?'' led NBC to invite him to take over ''Tonight'' a few months before Paar's departure. Carson declined the offer because he feared the difficulty of interviewing celebrities for 105 minutes daily, but NBC asked him again after Bob Newhart, Jackie Gleason, Groucho Marx, and Joey Bishop all declined. Carson accepted in March 1962, but had six months left on his ABC contract, during which NBC used multiple guest hosts including Merv Griffin.

Although he continued to have doubts about his new job, Carson became host of ''Tonight'' (later becoming ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'') on October 1, 1962 and quickly overcame his fears. While ''Tonight'' under its previous hosts had been successful, with Carson the show's ratings soared. Billy Wilder said of Carson:

}}

McMahon followed Carson from ''Who Do You Trust?'' as his announcer and sidekick. McMahon's opening line, "Heeeere's Johnny" was followed by a brief monologue by Carson. This was often followed by comedy sketches, interviews, and music. Carson's trademark was a phantom golf swing at the end of his monologues, aimed stage left toward the studio orchestra. Guest hosts sometimes parodied that gesture. Bob Newhart rolled an imaginary bowling ball toward the audience. Johnny enjoyed what he called the "Carson Kits," or beautiful girls to dress his show. Theona Bryant, a favorite, was a model. The other "Carson Cuties" were Phyllis Applegate, Norma Brooks, and Sally Todd.

Paul Anka wrote the theme song ("Johnny's Theme"), a reworking of his "Toot Sweet", given lyrics, renamed "It's Really Love," and recorded by Annette Funicello in 1959. Before taking over ''The Tonight Show'', Carson wrote lyrics for the song and thus claimed 50 percent of the song's performance royalties (even though the lyrics were never used).

The show was originally produced in New York City, with occasional stints in California. It was not live in its early years, although during the 1970s, NBC fed the live taping from Burbank to New York via satellite for editing (see below). The program had been done "live on tape" (uninterrupted unless a problem occurred) since the Jack Paar days. Carson had a talent for quick quips to deal with problems. If the opening monologue fared poorly, the band would start playing "Tea for Two" and Carson danced, to laughs from the studio audience. Alternatively, Carson might pull the boom mic close to his face and announce ''"Attention K-Mart shoppers!"''

Move to Burbank

In May 1972, the show moved from New York to Burbank, California. Carson often joked about "beautiful downtown Burbank" and referred to "beautiful downtown Bakersfield," which prompted Mayor Mary K. Shell to chide Carson and invite him to her city to see improvements made during the early 1980s.

After July 1971, Carson stopped doing shows five days a week. Instead, on Monday nights there was a guest host, leaving Carson to do the other four each week. Shows were taped in Burbank at 5:30 pm (8:30 pm Eastern time) to be shown that evening at 11:30 pm Eastern time. On September 8, 1980, at Carson's request, the show cut its 90-minute format to 60 minutes; Tom Snyder's ''Tomorrow'' added a half hour to fill the vacant time. Joan Rivers became the "permanent" guest host from September 1983 until 1986, when she was fired for accepting a competing show on Fox without consulting Carson. ''The Tonight Show'' returned to using rotating guest hosts, including comic George Carlin. Jay Leno then became the exclusive guest host in fall 1987. Leno stated that although other guest hosts upped their fees, he kept his low, assuring himself more bookings. Eventually, Monday night was for Leno, Tuesday for ''The Best of Carson'', rebroadcasts usually dating from a year earlier but occasionally from the 1970s.

As Carson's work schedule shortened, ''Tonight'' remained so successful for NBC that his compensation continued to rise; by the mid-1970s Carson had become the highest-paid person on television at about $4 million a year ($}} today), not including nightclub appearances and his other businesses. Carson refused many offers to appear in films, including the title role in ''The Thomas Crown Affair'' and Gene Wilder's role in ''Blazing Saddles''.

In recognition of his 25th anniversary on ''The Tonight Show'', Carson received a personal Peabody Award, with the Board saying he had "become an American institution, a household word, [and] the most widely quoted American"; they also said they "felt the time had come to recognize the contributions that Johnny has made to television, to humor, and to America."

Comic characters

Carson played several continuing characters on sketches during the show, including

Art Fern, the "Tea Time Movie" announcer, whose theme song was "Hooray for Hollywood." Carson once admitted on camera that this was his favorite character, based on late-afternoon TV hosts who would deliver commercials throughout the movie. Each sketch usually featured three long commercials interrupted by silent, four-second clips from antique films. When the camera returned from each clip, Art was always caught off-guard and immediately reminded viewers that they were watching a film favorite. The movies always had unlikely casts and even less likely titles: "Slim Pickens, Patti Page, Duke Wayne, and Charlton Heston in another classic Western: 'Kiss My Saddle Horn'!" Carson originally played the fast-talking huckster in his own voice (as Honest Bernie Schlock or Ralph Willie), and finally settled on a nasal, high-pitched, smarmy drone reminiscent of Jackie Gleason's "Reginald Van Gleason III" character. The character, now permanently known as Art Fern, wore a lavish toupee, loud jackets, and a pencil mustache. Actress Carol Wayne became famous for her 100-plus appearances (1971–1982) as Art's buxom assistant, the Matinée Lady. While Art gave his spiel, she would enter the stage behind him. Art would react to her attractive body, wincing loudly, "''Ho'' — leeeee!" After Carol Wayne's death in 1985, Carson kept Art Fern off the air for most of the next year, and finally hired Danuta Wesley and then Teresa Ganzel to play the Matinée Lady. Carson also used these sketches to poke fun at the intricate Los Angeles interstate system, using a pointer and map to give confusing directions to shoppers often including points where he would unfold the cardboard map to point out, via the appropriate picture, when the shopper would arrive at "the fork in the road." Another freeway routine in the same theme centered around the fictional "Slauson Cutoff." Art Fern would advise drivers to take a series of freeways until they reached the Slauson Cutoff, and would then advise them to "Get out of your car, cut off your slauson, get back in your car," often followed by peals of laughter from the audience, led by McMahon.

Carnac the Magnificent, a turbaned psychic who could answer questions before seeing them. (This same routine had been done by Carson's predecessor, Steve Allen, as "The Answer Man." The Carnac character and routine closely resembled Ernie Kovacs' character "Mr. Question Man.") Carnac had a trademark entrance in which he always turned the wrong direction when coming onto stage and then "tripped" on the step up to Carson's desk. (In one episode, technicians rigged Carson's desk to fall apart when Carnac fell into it.) These comedic missteps were an indication of Carnac's true prescient abilities. Ed McMahon would hand Carnac a series of envelopes, containing questions. Carnac would place each envelope against his forehead and predict the answer, such as "Gatorade." Then he would read the question: "What does an alligator get on welfare?" Some of the jokes were feeble, and McMahon used pauses after terrible puns and audience groans to make light of Carnac's lack of comic success ("Carnac must be used to quiet surroundings"), prompting Carson to return an equal insult. McMahon would always announce near the end, "I hold in my hand the ''last'' envelope," at which the audience would applaud wildly, prompting Carnac to pronounce a comedic "curse" on the audience, such as "May your sister elope with a camel!"

Floyd R. Turbo, American (with no pause between words). A stereotypical redneck wearing a plaid hunting coat and cap, who offered "editorial responses" to left-leaning causes or news events. Railing against women's rights in the workplace, for example, Turbo would shout, "This raises the question: kiss my Dictaphone!"

Aunt Blabby, a cantankerous and sometimes amorous old lady, invariably being interviewed by straight man Ed McMahon about elder affairs. McMahon would innocently use a common expression like "check out," only to have Aunt Blabby warn him, "Don't say 'check out' to an old person!" Aunt Blabby was an obvious copy of Jonathan Winters’ most famous creation, Maude Frickert, including her black spinster dress and wig.

El Mouldo, a mentalist, who would attempt to perform mind-reading and mind-over-matter feats, all of which failed. Often his tricks would include an attempt to bilk money from Ed McMahon or would end with him begging the audience for a dollar, or at least bus fare.

The Maharishi, whose theme song was "Song of India". This frizzy-haired "holy man" spoke in a high-pitched, tranquil tone, greeted announcer McMahon with a flower, and answered philosophical questions.

Carson uncensored on satellite

Even though Carson's program was based in Burbank, NBC's editing and production services for the program were located in New York, resulting in the requirement that Carson's program be transmitted from Burbank to New York. Beginning in 1976, NBC used the Satcom 2 satellite to do this, feeding the live taping (which usually took place in the early evening) directly to New York, where it would be edited prior to the normal broadcast. This live feed lasted usually from two to two-and-a-half hours a night, and was uncensored and commercial-free. During the commercial breaks the audio and picture would be left on, capturing at times risque language and other events that would certainly be edited out later going out over the feed.

At the same time, however, satellite ground stations owned by private individuals began to appear, and some managed to find the live feed. Satellite dish owners began to document their sightings in technical journals, giving viewers knowledge of things they were not meant to see. Carson and his production staff grew concerned about this, and pressured NBC into ceasing the satellite transmissions of the live taping in the early 1980s. The satellite link was replaced by microwave landline transmission until the show's editing facilities were finally moved to Burbank.

Effect on popular culture

Carson's show was the launch for many performers, notably comedians. Many got their break on the show, and it was an achievement to get Carson to laugh and be called to the guest chair. Most notable were Jerry Seinfeld, Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Maher, Ellen Degeneres, Tim Allen, Drew Carey, and Roseanne Barr. Carson was successor to ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' as a showcase for all kinds of talent, as well as continuing a vaudeville-style variety show.

A bit of adult humor was not beyond Carson. During an interview with Dolly Parton, in reference to her large bust, she said, ''"People are always asking if they're real and ... I'll tell you what, these are mine."'' Carson replied, ''"I have certain guidelines on this show. But I would give about a year's pay to peek under there."'' Videotape of the Parton interview survives and has been rebroadcast several times during ''Tonight Show'' retrospectives.

In 1966, Carson singlehandedly popularized the game Twister when he got down on the floor to play it with Eva Gabor. Previous to their game on television, Twister had languished on Milton Bradley's B-list, but after the broadcast, it took off in popularity.

Controversies and feuds

Carson made several routine jokes at the expense of other celebrities. Some years after a high-profile feud between Carson and Wayne Newton, the latter appeared on ''Larry King Live'', declaring that "Johnny Carson was a mean-spirited human being. And there are people that he has hurt that people will never know about. And for some reason at some point, he decided to turn that kind of negative attention toward me. And I refused to have it."

Carson reportedly loathed what he felt was disloyalty among friends. The comedian was displeased when former ''Tonight Show'' guest hosts John Davidson and Joan Rivers got their own talk shows. Rivers' show on the Fox network directly competed with Carson during the 1986-1987 season, and died a quick death. On June 24, 2009 following Ed McMahon's death, Rivers lauded McMahon on ''Larry King Live'' but stated that Carson "never again spoke to me, up to his death."

Carson successfully sued a manufacturer of portable toilets who wanted to call its product "Here's Johnny".

Business ventures

Carson was a major investor in the ultimately failed DeLorean Motor Company.

Carson was head of a group of investors who purchased and operated two television stations. The first was KVVU-TV in Henderson, Nevada, an independent station serving Las Vegas, acquired by the Carson group in 1979. Shortly after buying the station, KVVU was rumored to acquiring an NBC affiliation as then long-time affiliate KORK-TV was in the process of being replaced by KVBC, but it never happened. Carson's second station, independent KNAT-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico was purchased in 1982. Unlike the Las Vegas operation, KNAT faced stiffer competition for top-quality syndicated programming. Carson sold both of his stations between 1985 and 1986, with KVVU going to Meredith Corporation and KNAT being sold to Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Carson's other business ventures included the successful Johnny Carson Apparel, Inc.—his turtlenecks became a fashion trend—and a failed restaurant franchise.

Retirement

Carson retired from show business on May 22, 1992, when he stepped down as host of ''The Tonight Show''. His farewell was a major media event, and stretched over several nights. It was often emotional for Carson, his colleagues, and the audiences, particularly the farewell statement he delivered on his 4,531st and final ''Tonight Show'':

NBC gave the role of host to the show's then-current permanent guest host, Jay Leno. Leno and David Letterman were soon competing on separate networks.

Post-retirement appearances

At the end of his final ''Tonight Show'' appearance, Carson indicated that he might, if so inspired, return with a new project, but instead chose to go into full retirement, rarely giving interviews and declining to participate in NBC's 75th anniversary celebrations. He made the occasional cameo appearance, including voicing himself on a 1993 episode of ''The Simpsons'' ("Krusty Gets Kancelled"), telephoning David Letterman on a November 1993 episode of ''Late Show with David Letterman'', and appearing in the 1993 NBC Special ''Bob Hope: The First 90 Years''. On May 13, 1994, Carson appeared on ''Late Show with David Letterman''. During a week of shows from Los Angeles, Letterman was having Larry "Bud" Melman (Calvert DeForest) deliver his "Top Ten Lists" under the guise that a famous personality would be delivering the list instead. On the last show of the week, Letterman indicated that Carson would be delivering the list. Instead, DeForest delivered the list, insulted the audience (in keeping with the gag), and walked off to polite applause. Letterman then indicated that the card he was given did not have the proper list on it and asked that the "real" list be brought out. On that cue, the real Johnny Carson emerged from behind the curtain (as Letterman's band played "Johnny's Theme"), an appearance which prompted a standing ovation from the audience. Carson then requested to sit behind Letterman's desk; Letterman obliged, as the audience continued to cheer and applaud. After some moments, Carson departed from the show without having spoken to the audience. He later cited acute laryngitis as the reason for his silence. This night turned out to be Carson's last television appearance.

Letterman

Just days before Carson's death, it was revealed that he occasionally sent jokes to Letterman. Letterman would then use these jokes in the monologue of his show, which Carson got "a big kick out of" according to Worldwide Pants, Inc., Senior Vice-President Peter Lassally, who formerly produced both men's programs. He also claimed that Carson had always believed Letterman, not Leno, to be his "rightful successor." Letterman frequently employs some of Carson's trademark bits on his show, including "Carnac" (with band leader Paul Shaffer as Carnac), "Stump the Band," and the "Week in Review."

Personal life

Despite his on-camera demeanor, Carson was very shy off-camera, avoided most large parties, and was referred to as "the most private public man who ever lived". Dick Cavett recalled that "I felt sorry for Johnny in that he was so socially uncomfortable. I've hardly ever met anybody who had as hard a time as he did." George Axelrod said of Carson: "Socially, he doesn’t exist. The reason is that there are no television cameras in living rooms. If human beings had little-red lights in the middle of their foreheads, Carson would be the greatest conversationalist on earth."

He normally refused to discuss politics, social controversies, his childhood, or private life with interviewers, and offered the following list of prewritten answers to journalists who wanted to ask him questions: #Yes, I did. #Not a bit of truth in that rumor. # Only twice in my life, both times on Saturday. #I can do either, but I prefer the first. #No. Kumquats. #I can’t answer that question. #Toads and tarantulas. #Turkestan, Denmark, Chile, and the Komandorskie Islands. #As often as possible, but I’m not very good at it yet. I need much more practice. #It happened to some old friends of mine, and it’s a story I’ll never forget.

Politics

Carson opposed capital punishment, favored racial equality, and was against crimininalizing extramarital sex and pornography. He avoided explicitly mentioning his views on ''Tonight'', however, saying "I hate to be pinned down" as that would "hurt me as an entertainer, which is what I am".

Marriages

In 1948, Carson married Jody Wolcott. The marriage was volatile, with infidelities by both parties, finally ending in divorce. In 1963, Carson got a "quickie" Mexican divorce from Wolcott and married Joanne Copeland on August 17, 1963. After a protracted divorce in 1972, Copeland received nearly half a million dollars in cash and art, and $100,000 a year in alimony for life.

At the Carson ''Tonight Show'' 10th anniversary party on September 30, 1972, Carson announced that he and former model Joanna Holland had been secretly married that afternoon, shocking his friends and associates. Carson kidded that he had married three similarly named women to avoid "having to change the monogram on the towels." A similar joke was made by Bob Newhart during Carson's roast by Dean Martin. On March 8, 1983, Holland filed for divorce. Under California's community property laws, she was entitled to 50 percent of all the assets accumulated during the marriage, even though Carson earned virtually 100 percent of the couple's income. During this period he joked on ''The Tonight Show'', "My producer, Freddie de Cordova, really gave me something I needed for Christmas. He gave me a gift certificate to the Law Offices of Jacoby & Meyers." The divorce case finally ended in 1985 with an 80-page settlement, Holland receiving $20 million in cash and property.

On June 20, 1987, Carson married Alexis Mass. The marriage lasted until his death in 2005.

Children

Carson had three sons. Richard Carson, his son from his first marriage, died on June 21, 1991, when his car plunged down a steep embankment along a paved service road off Highway 1 near Cayucos, a small town north of San Luis Obispo, California. Apparently, Richard had been taking photographs when the accident occurred. On the first ''Tonight Show'' after Ricky's death, Carson gave a tribute in the final minutes of his show as samples of his son's photographic work (and images of Ricky, himself) were displayed with the music accompaniment of ''Riviera Paradise'' by blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. In addition, the final image — as well as some "More to Come" bumpers — of Carson's last show that aired May 22, 1992 featured a photo Richard had taken.

Charity

In 1981, Carson created the John W. Carson Foundation, dedicated to supporting children, education and health services. The Foundation continues to support charitable causes.

In November 2004, Carson announced a $5.3 million gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation to support the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts' Department of Theatre Arts, which created the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. Another $5 million donation was announced by the estate of Carson to the University of Nebraska following his death.

Carson also donated to causes in his hometown of Norfolk, including the Carson Cancer Center at Faith Regional Health Services, the Elkhorn Valley Museum, and the Johnny Carson Theater at Norfolk Senior High School.

In August 2010, the charitable foundation created by Johnny Carson reported receiving $156 million from a personal trust established by the entertainer years prior to his January 2005 death. Carson's foundation was now by far the biggest of Hollywood charities.

Other events

Carson, an amateur astronomer, was close friends with astronomer Carl Sagan, who often appeared on ''The Tonight Show''. The unique way Sagan had of saying certain words, like "billions" of galaxies, would lead to Carson ribbing his friend, imitating his voice and saying ''"BILL-ions and BILL-ions"'', a phrase attributed to Sagan. Carson was the first person to contact Sagan's wife with condolences when the scientist died in 1996. He owned several telescopes, including a Questar, considered at the time a top-of-the line telescope.

Carson was shown on a segment of ''60 Minutes'' practicing at home on a drum set given to him by close friend Buddy Rich, who was the jazz musician with the most appearances on ''The Tonight Show''. Writer Gore Vidal, another frequent ''Tonight Show'' guest and friend, writes about Carson's personality in his 2006 memoirs.

In 1982, Carson was found to be driving his DeLorean while under the influence of alcohol. He pled ''nolo contendere'' to a misdemeanor charge and given three years of probation. Carson was required to attend an alcohol program for drivers and was permitted to use his car only to drive to work and back.

Death and tributes

On March 19, 1999, Carson, then 73, suffered a severe heart attack at his home in Malibu, California. Carson was sleeping when he suddenly awoke with severe chest pains. He was rushed to a hospital in nearby Santa Monica where he underwent quadruple-bypass surgery.

At 6:50 AM PST on January 23, 2005, Carson died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, of respiratory failure arising from emphysema. He was 79 years old. Carson had revealed his illness to the public in September 2002. Following Carson's death his body was cremated, and the ashes were given to his wife. In accordance with his family's wishes, no public memorial service was held. There were numerous tributes paid to Carson upon his death, including a statement by then President George W. Bush, recognizing the deep and enduring affection held for him.

On January 24, 2005, ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' paid tribute to Carson with guests Ed McMahon, Bob Newhart, Don Rickles, Drew Carey and k.d. lang. Letterman followed suit on January 31 with former ''Tonight Show'' executive producer Peter Lassally and bandleader Doc Severinsen. During the beginning of this show, Letterman said that for 30 years no matter what was going on in the world, no matter whether people had a good or bad day, they wanted to end the day by being "tucked in by Johnny." Letterman also told his viewers that the monologue he had just given (which had been very well received by the studio audience) had consisted entirely of jokes sent to him by Carson in the last few months of his life. Doc Severinsen ended the Letterman show that night by playing one of Carson's two favorite songs, "Here's That Rainy Day" (the other was "I'll Be Seeing You"). It had been reported over the decades of Carson's fame that he was, off-camera, so intensely private that he had never once invited McMahon to his home. After Carson's death, though, McMahon disputed those rumors and claimed that a close friendship existed. On his final ''Tonight Show'' appearance, Carson himself said that while sometimes people who work together for long stretches of time on television don't necessarily like each other, this was not the case with him and McMahon: They were good friends who would have dinner together, and the camaraderie that they had on the show could not be faked. Carson and McMahon were friends for forty-six years.

A week or so after the tributes, Dennis Miller was on ''The Tonight Show'' and told Jay Leno about the first time he tried to host a talk show, and how miserably it went. He said that he got a call immediately after the first show, from Carson, telling him, "It's not as easy as it looks, is it, kid?"

The 2005 film ''The Aristocrats'' was dedicated to Carson, as well as ''The Simpsons'' episode "Mommie Beerest".

At the 1st Annual Comedy Awards on Comedy Central, the Johnny Carson Award was given to David Letterman.

References

Further reading

Accounts on work and life

Humor material collections

ISBN-10: 1199397350 ASIN: B002J1EG3A

''Johnny Carson Collection'', Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

External links

Official website for ''The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson''

at Salon at ''The New Republic''

1978 profile from ''The New Yorker'' by Kenneth Tynan

''The Johnny Carson Show'' from USA Today

Posthumous Letter to Carson from Steve Martin published in ''The New York Times''

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Obituaries

CNN obituary

MSNBC obituary

Johnny Carson obituary by James Wolcott

Category:1925 births Category:2005 deaths Category:American game show hosts Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:Deaths from emphysema Category:Disease-related deaths in California Category:Entertainers from Nebraska Category:University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Category:United States Navy officers Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Peabody Award winners Category:People from Adams County, Iowa

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name	Jimmy Kimmel
birth name	James Christian Kimmel
birth date	November 13, 1967
birth place	Brooklyn, New York, USA
medium	Radio, television, film
nationality	American
active	1989–present
genre	Observational comedy, Current events, Insult comedy
subject	American culture, Everyday life, Celebrities
influences	David Letterman, Howard Stern
spouse	Gina Kimmel (1988–2003) (divorced); 2 children
domesticpartner	Sarah Silverman (2002–2007; 2008–2009) Molly McNearney (2009–present)
notable work	Creator and Host of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' (ABC) Creator and Co-Host of ''The Man Show''co-host of ''Win Ben Stein's Money'' (Comedy Central)co-host of ''Crank Yankers''

}} James Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, voice artist and television host. He is the host of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Prior to that, Kimmel was best known as the co-host of Comedy Central's ''The Man Show'' and ''Win Ben Stein's Money''. Kimmel is also a television producer, having produced shows such as ''Crank Yankers'', ''Sports Show with Norm Macdonald'', and ''The Andy Milonakis Show''.

Early life

Kimmel was born in the Mill Basin neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the eldest of three children of Joann (née Iacono), a homemaker, and James Kimmel, an IBM executive. He is Roman Catholic and, as a child, served as an altar boy. Kimmel is of German and Irish descent on his father’s side and Italian descent on his mother’s side. His uncle, Frank Potenza, appeared on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' as a regular from 2003 until his death in 2011.

The family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, when he was nine years old. He graduated from Ed W. Clark High School and then attended University of Nevada, Las Vegas for one year before attending Arizona State University for two years without completing a degree.

Career

Radio career

Kimmel began working in the radio industry while in high school, hosting a Sunday night interview show on UNLV's college station KUNV. While attending Arizona State University, he became a popular caller to the KZZP-FM afternoon show hosted by radio personalities Mike Elliott and Kent Voss in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1989, Kimmel landed his first paying job alongside Voss as morning drive co-host of ''The Me and Him Show'' at KZOK-FM in Seattle, Washington. Ten months later, Kimmel and Voss were fired by KZOK (for reasons unknown) and were fired again a year later at WRBQ-FM in Tampa, Florida. Kimmel went from Tampa to host his own show at KCMJ in Palm Springs, California, where Kimmel convinced a young Carson Daly to drop out of college and become his intern. After a morning stint at KRQQ In Tucson, Arizona, Kimmel landed at KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, California. He spent five years as "Jimmy The Sports Guy" for the Kevin and Bean morning show. During this time he met and befriended a struggling comedian named Adam Carolla.

Comedy Central

Kimmel began his television career as the comedic counterpart to Ben Stein on the game show ''Win Ben Stein's Money'', which began airing on Comedy Central in 1997. His quick wit and loutish everyman personality were counterpoints to Stein's monotone performing style and patrician demeanor. The combination earned the pair an Emmy award for Best Game Show Host.

In 1999, during his time with ''Win Ben Stein's Money'', Kimmel was also co-host with Adam Carolla and co-creator (with Daniel Kellison) of Comedy Central's ''The Man Show''. Kimmel permanently left ''Win Ben Stein's Money'' in 2001, replaced by comedian Nancy Pimental, who was eventually replaced by Kimmel's cousin Sal Iacono. ''The Man Show'''s success allowed Kimmel, Carolla and Kellison to create and produce, under the banner Jackhole Industries, ''Crank Yankers'' for Comedy Central (on which Kimmel plays the characters "Elmer Higgins", "Terrence Catheter", "The Nudge", "Karl Malone" and himself), and later ''The Andy Milonakis Show'' for MTV2. Kimmel also produced and co-wrote the feature film ''Windy City Heat'', which won the Comedia Award for Best Film at the Montreal Comedy Festival.

''Jimmy Kimmel Live!''

In January 2003, Kimmel permanently left ''The Man Show'' to host his own late-night talk show, ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' on ABC. ''Jimmy Kimmel Live'' was briefly also broadcast on Irish digital TV channel 3e. In the April 2007 issue of Stuffmagazine.com, Kimmel was named the "biggest badass on TV". Kimmel said it was an honor but clearly a mistake.

Since the show's second season, it has not actually been broadcast live. This is due to an incident during the 2004 NBA Finals in Detroit, when Kimmel appeared on ABC's halftime show to make an on-air plug for his show. He suggested that if the Detroit Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, "they're gonna burn the city of Detroit down ... and it's not worth it." Officials with Detroit's ABC affiliate, WXYZ-TV, immediately announced that night's show would not air on the station. Hours later, ABC officials pulled that night's show from the entire network. Kimmel later apologized. The incident led ABC officials to force Kimmel to tape his show an hour before it airs in most of the country to check for offending content.

Kimmel usually ends his show with, "My apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time." When Matt Damon did actually appear on the show to be interviewed, he walked in and sat down only to be told just a few seconds later by Kimmel, "Sorry, but once again we are completely out of time." Damon seemed to become angry.

In February 2008 Kimmel showed a mock music video with a panoply of stars called, "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck", as "revenge" after his then-girlfriend Sarah Silverman and Matt Damon recorded a similar video, "I'm Fucking Matt Damon". Silverman's video originally aired on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', and became an "instant YouTube sensation." Kimmel's "revenge" video featured himself, Ben Affleck, and a large lineup of stars, particularly in scenes spoofing the 1985 "We Are the World" video: Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, Cameron Diaz, Robin Williams, Harrison Ford, Dominic Monaghan, Benji Madden and Joel Madden from Good Charlotte, Lance Bass, Macy Gray, Josh Groban, Huey Lewis, Perry Farrell, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Pete Wentz, Meat Loaf, Rebecca Romijn, Christina Applegate, Dom Joly, Mike Shinoda, Lauren Conrad, and Joan Jett, among others. After this Jimmy's sidekick, Guillermo, appeared in a spoof of The Bourne Ultimatum, which starred Damon. He was then chased down by Damon as Matt cursed about Kimmel being behind all this. Guillermo also stopped Damon on the red carpet one time and before he could finish the interview he said, "Sorry we are out of time." The most recent encounter was titled "The Handsome Men's Club" which featured Kimmel, along with the "Handsome Men", who were: Matthew McConaughey, Rob Lowe, Lenny Kravitz, Patrick Dempsey, Sting, Keith Urban, John Krasinski, Ethan Hawke, Josh Hartnett, Tony Romo, Ted Danson, Taye Diggs, Gilles Marini, and Ben Affleck, speaking about being handsome and all the jobs that come with it. At the end of the skit Kimmel has a door slammed in his face by none other than Matt Damon, stating that they had run out of time and then Damon continues with a sinister laugh. Jennifer Garner also makes a surprise appearance.

As a tradition, celebrities voted off ''Dancing with the Stars'' appear on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', causing Kimmel to describe himself as "the three-headed dog the stars must pass on their way to No-Dancing Hell". In the 2008 season of his show, Kimmel started another tradition of ceremonially burning the dancers' shoes after they were voted off ''DWTS''.

Other television work

In Spring 1996, Kimmel appeared as "Jimmy the Fox Guy" in promos on the Fox network.

Kimmel's other television work included being the on-air football prognosticator for ''Fox NFL Sunday'' for four years. He has had numerous appearances on other talk shows including, but not limited to, ''Live with Regis and Kelly'', ''The Howard Stern Show'', ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'', and ''The Late Show with David Letterman''. Kimmel has appeared on ''The Late Show'' five times, most recently on April 21, 2008. Kimmel served as roastmaster for the New York Friars' Club Roast of Hugh Hefner and Comedy Central Roasts of ''Pamela Anderson''. He has appeared on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, along with his parking lot security guard Guillermo.

In August 2006, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel would be the host of their new game show ''Set for Life''. The show debuted on July 20, 2007. On April 6, 2007, Kimmel filled in for Larry King on ''Larry King Live''. That particular show was about the paparazzi and Kimmel reproached Emily Gould, an editor from Gawker.com, about the web site's alleged stalking of celebrities. On July 8, 2007, Kimmel managed the National League in the 2007 Taco Bell All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game in San Francisco. He played in the game in 2004 and 2006 (Houston and Pittsburgh). On July 11, 2007, Kimmel along with basketball player LeBron James, hosted the 2007 ''ESPY Awards''. The show aired on ESPN on July 15, 2007. Kimmel hosted the American Music Awards on ABC four times, in 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Kimmel guest hosted ''Live with Regis and Kelly'' during the week of October 22, 2007 – October 26, 2007, commuting every day between New York and Los Angeles. In the process, he broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest distance () travelled in one work week.

Kimmel has performed in several animated films, often voicing dogs. His voice appeared in ''Garfield'' and ''Road Trip'', and he portrayed Death's Dog in the ''Family Guy'' episode "Mr. Saturday Knight"; ''Family Guy'' creator Seth McFarlane later presented Kimmel with a figurine of his character on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!''. Kimmel also did voice work for ''Robot Chicken''. Kimmel's cousin "Sal" (Sal Iacono) has accepted and won a wrestling match with WWE superstar Santino Marella. On January 14, 2010, in the midst of the 2010 Tonight Show host and time slot conflict, Kimmel was the special guest of Jay Leno on ''The Jay Leno Show'''s "10 at 10" segment. Kimmel derided Leno in front of a live studio audience for taking back the 11:35 pm time slot from Conan O'Brien, and repeatedly insulted Leno. He ended the segment with a plea that Leno "leave our shows alone," as Kimmel and O'Brien had "kids" while Leno only had "cars".

Kimmel also made a brief appearance in the TV commercial "There's A Soldier In All Of Us" promoting the 2010 video game ''Call of Duty: Black Ops'', along with Kobe Bryant. He is seen taking cover from bullets, then firing an RPG-7 with the words ''PROUD N00b'' on it, with the aftershock from the weapon sending him tumbling backwards.

Personal life

Kimmel and his then fiancée, Gina, married in June 1988. They have two children, Katie (born 1991) and Kevin (born 1993). Katie Kimmel is an art student in Chicago. The marriage ended in separation in early 2002. Kimmel then dated comedian Sarah Silverman for five years, splitting with her in March 2009. He started dating current girlfriend, Molly McNearney, in October 2009. McNearney is also a co-head writer for ''Jimmy Kimmel Live''.

Kimmel plays the bass clarinet. He got a chance to showcase his talent during a July 20, 2008, concert in Costa Mesa, California, featuring the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, when he took the stage and played bass clarinet on their hit song "The Impression That I Get."

Kimmel has spoken publicly of being a narcoleptic.

Kimmel co-founded the annual LA Feast of San Gennaro, which celebrates Italian culture through entertainment, music and cuisine. The festival also honors outstanding members of the Los Angeles community and raises funds to aid needy children and families in the city. He hosted Los Angeles' eighth annual feast of San Gennaro from September 28 to 30, 2009. Kimmel served as Master of Ceremonies for the National Italian American Foundation's 34th Anniversary Gala in Washington, D.C., on October 24, 2009.

He resides across the street from actor John Krasinski (known for his role as Jim Halpert on ''The Office'') and his wife, actress Emily Blunt.

Awards

References

External links

ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live website

JimmyKimmel.Net

Jimmy Kimmel appears on Michael Eisner's talkshow on CNBC

Jimmy Kimmel interview

Appearance on HGTV's ''Designer's Challenge''

Jimmy is Maxim's #2 Dudeliest Dude 2007

Category:1967 births Category:Actors from New York City Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American game show hosts Category:American radio personalities Category:American television actors Category:American television producers Category:American television writers Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American people of German descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Living people Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Radio personalities from the Las Vegas Valley Category:University of Nevada, Las Vegas alumni

ar:جيمي كاميل de:Jimmy Kimmel fi:Jimmy Kimmel fr:Jimmy Kimmel he:ג'ימי קימל id:Jimmy Kimmel it:Jimmy Kimmel no:Jimmy Kimmel pl:Jimmy Kimmel pt:Jimmy Kimmel ru:Киммел, Джимми simple:Jimmy Kimmel th:จิมมี คิมเมล

Name	Angelina Jolie
Birth name	Angelina Jolie Voight
Birth date	June 04, 1975
Birth place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, director, writer, producer, humanitarian
Years active	1982; 1991–present
Spouse	Jonny Lee Miller (1996–1999)Billy Bob Thornton (2000–2003)
Partner	Brad Pitt (2005–present)
Children	6
Parents	Jon VoightMarcheline Bertrand
Relatives	James Haven (brother)Chip Taylor (uncle) }}

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Header1	Film awards
data2	{{Infobox | child yes | title Academy Awards | label1 | data1 | label2 2000 | data2 Best Supporting Actress }}

| data3 =

{{infobox | child	yes | title Golden Globe Awards | label1 1998 | data1 Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film | label2 1999 | data2 Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film | label3 2000 | data3 Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture }}

| data4 =

{{infobox | child	yes | title Screen Actors Guild Awards | label1 1999 | data1 Outstanding Female Actor – Miniseries or Television Movie | label2 2000 | data2 Outstanding Supporting Female Actor }}

}}

Angelina Jolie ( , born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress and director. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by ''Forbes'' in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She has been cited as the world's "most beautiful" woman, a title for which she has received substantial media attention.—and received further critical acclaim for her performances in the dramas ''A Mighty Heart'' (2007) and ''Changeling'' (2008), which earned her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Jolie made her directorial debut with the wartime drama ''In the Land of Blood and Honey'' (2011).

Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie now lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship notable for fervent media attention. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, and three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne.

Early life and family

Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She is the sister of actor James Haven, niece of singer-songwriter Chip Taylor, and goddaughter of actors Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. On her father's side, Jolie is of German and Slovak descent, and on her mother's side, she is of primarily French Canadian, Dutch, and German ancestry, as well as of distant Huron and Swiss heritage.

After her parents' separation in 1976, Jolie and her brother lived with their mother, who abandoned her acting ambitions to focus on raising her children. As a child, Jolie regularly saw movies with her mother and later explained that this had inspired her interest in acting; she had not been influenced by her father. When she was six years old, her mother and stepfather, filmmaker Bill Day, moved the family to Palisades, New York; they returned to Los Angeles five years later. She then decided she wanted to act and enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she trained for two years and appeared in several stage productions.

At the age of 14, Jolie dropped out of her acting classes and aspired to become a funeral director. She began working as a fashion model, modeling mainly in Los Angeles, New York, and London. During this period, she wore black clothing, experimented with knife play, and went out moshing with her live-in boyfriend. Two years later, after the relationship had ended, she rented an apartment above a garage a few blocks from her mother's home.

Jolie suffered episodes of suicidal depression throughout her teens and early twenties. later commenting, "I collected knives and always had certain things around. For some reason, the ritual of having cut myself and feeling the pain, maybe feeling alive, feeling some kind of release, it was somehow therapeutic to me." She also began experimenting with drugs; by the age of 20, she had tried "just about every drug possible," including heroin.

Jolie has had a difficult relationship with her father. Due to Voight's marital infidelity and the resulting breakup of her parents' marriage, she was estranged from her father for many years. They reconciled and he appeared with her in ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' (2001), but their relationship again deteriorated. In August of that year, Voight claimed his daughter had "serious mental problems" on ''Access Hollywood''. In response, Jolie released a statement in which she indicated that she no longer wished to pursue a relationship with her father. She explained that because she had adopted her son Maddox, she did not think it was healthy for her to associate with Voight. In the wake of her beloved mother's death from ovarian cancer on January 27, 2007, Jolie again reconciled with her father after a six-year estrangement.

Career

Early work: 1982; 1991–1997

When she was seven years old, Jolie had a small part in ''Lookin' to Get Out'' (1982), a movie co-written by and starring her father, Jon Voight. She committed to acting at the age of 16, but initially found it difficult to pass auditions, often being told that she was "too dark." The movie failed to make a profit at the box office, but developed a cult following after its video release.

She next appeared in the 1996 comedy ''Love Is All There Is'', a modern-day loose adaptation of ''Romeo and Juliet'' set among two rival Italian family restaurant owners in The Bronx, New York. In the road movie ''Mojave Moon'' (1996) she played a young woman who falls for Danny Aiello's middle-aged character, while he develops feelings for her mother, played by Anne Archer. That same year, Jolie also portrayed Margret "Legs" Sadovsky, one of five teenage girls who form an unlikely bond in the film ''Foxfire'' after they beat up a teacher who has sexually harassed them. The ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote about her performance, "It took a lot of hogwash to develop this character, but Jolie, Jon Voight's knockout daughter, has the presence to overcome the stereotype. Though the story is narrated by Maddy, Legs is the subject and the catalyst."

In 1997, Jolie starred with David Duchovny in the thriller ''Playing God'', set in the Los Angeles underworld. The movie was not well-received by critics; Roger Ebert noted that "Angelina Jolie finds a certain warmth in a kind of role that is usually hard and aggressive; she seems too nice to be [a criminal's] girlfriend, and maybe she is." She then appeared in the television film ''True Women'' (1997), a historical romantic drama set in the American West and based on the book by Janice Woods Windle. That year, she also appeared as a stripper in the music video for "Anybody Seen My Baby?" by the Rolling Stones.

Breakthrough: 1998–2000

Jolie's career prospects began to improve after she won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in TNT's ''George Wallace'' (1997). She portrayed Cornelia Wallace, the second wife of Alabama Governor George Wallace, played by Gary Sinise. The film was very well-received by critics and won, among other awards, the Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film. Jolie also received an Emmy Award nomination for her performance.

In 1998, Jolie starred in HBO's ''Gia'', portraying supermodel Gia Carangi. The film chronicled the destruction of Carangi's life and career as a result of her addiction to heroin, and her decline and death from AIDS in the mid-1980s. Vanessa Vance from Reel.com noted, "Angelina Jolie gained wide recognition for her role as the titular Gia, and it's easy to see why. Jolie is fierce in her portrayal—filling the part with nerve, charm, and desperation—and her role in this film is quite possibly the most beautiful train wreck ever filmed." For the second consecutive year, Jolie won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also won her first Screen Actors Guild Award.

In accordance with Lee Strasberg's method acting, Jolie preferred to stay in character in between scenes during many of her early films, and as a result had gained a reputation for being difficult to deal with. While shooting ''Gia'', she told her then-husband Jonny Lee Miller that she would not be able to phone him: "I'd tell him: 'I'm alone; I'm dying; I'm gay; I'm not going to see you for weeks.'" After ''Gia'' wrapped in 1997, Jolie announced that she had given up acting for good, because she felt that she had "nothing else to give." She separated from Miller and moved to New York, where she enrolled at New York University to study filmmaking and attend writing classes; she later described it as "just good for me to collect myself." Encouraged by her Golden Globe Award win for ''George Wallace'' and the positive critical reception of ''Gia'', she resumed her career. Jolie won the Breakthrough Performance Award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.

In 1999, she starred in the comedy-drama ''Pushing Tin'', alongside John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. The film received a mixed reception from critics, and Jolie's character—Thornton's seductive wife—was particularly criticized. ''The Washington Post'' wrote, "Mary (Angelina Jolie) [is] a completely ludicrous writer's creation of a free-spirited woman who weeps over hibiscus plants that die, wears lots of turquoise rings and gets real lonely when Russell spends entire nights away from home." She then co-starred with Denzel Washington in ''The Bone Collector'' (1999), an adaptation of a crime novel by Jeffery Deaver. Jolie played a police officer haunted by her cop father's suicide, who reluctantly helps Washington track down a serial killer. The movie grossed $151 million worldwide, but was a critical failure. The ''Detroit Free Press'' concluded, "Jolie, while always delicious to look at, is simply and woefully miscast."

Jolie next took the supporting role of the sociopathic Lisa Rowe in ''Girl, Interrupted'' (1999), an adaptation of former mental patient Susanna Kaysen's memoir of the same name. While Winona Ryder played the main character in what was hoped to be a comeback for her, the film instead marked Jolie's final breakthrough in Hollywood. She won her third Golden Globe Award, her second Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. ''Variety'' noted, "Jolie is excellent as the flamboyant, irresponsible girl who turns out to be far more instrumental than the doctors in Susanna's rehabilitation".

In 2000, Jolie appeared in her first summer blockbuster, ''Gone In 60 Seconds'', in which she played Sarah "Sway" Wayland, the ex-girlfriend of car thief Nicolas Cage. The role was small, and ''The Washington Post'' criticized that "all she does in this movie is stand around, cooling down, modeling those fleshy, pulsating muscle-tubes that nest so provocatively around her teeth." She later explained that the film had been a welcome relief after the emotionally heavy role of Lisa Rowe. It became her highest grossing movie up until then, earning $237 million internationally.

International success: 2001–present

Although highly regarded for her acting abilities, Jolie's films to date had often not appealed to a wide audience, but ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' (2001) made her an international superstar. An adaptation of the popular ''Tomb Raider'' videogame, Jolie was required to learn a British accent and undergo extensive martial arts training to play the title role of Lara Croft. She was generally praised for her physical performance, but the movie generated mostly negative reviews. ''Slant'' commented, "Angelina Jolie was born to play Lara Croft but [director] Simon West makes her journey into a game of Frogger." The movie was an international success nonetheless, earning $275 million worldwide, and launched her global reputation as a female action star.

Jolie then starred opposite Antonio Banderas as his mail-order bride in ''Original Sin'' (2001), a thriller based on the novel ''Waltz into Darkness'' by Cornell Woolrich. The film was a major critical failure, with ''The New York Times'' noting, "The story plunges more precipitously than Ms. Jolie's neckline." In 2002, she starred in ''Life or Something Like It'' as an ambitious television reporter who is told that she will die in a week. The film was poorly received by critics, though Jolie's performance received positive reviews. CNN's Paul Clinton wrote, "Jolie is excellent in her role. Despite some of the ludicrous plot points in the middle of the film, this Academy Award-winning actress is exceedingly believable in her journey towards self-discovery and the true meaning of fulfilling life."

Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in ''Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life'' (2003), which established her among Hollywood's highest-paid actresses. The sequel was not as lucrative as the original, earning $156 million at the international box office. She appeared in the music video for Korn's "Did My Time," which was used to promote the film. She next starred in ''Beyond Borders'' (2003), as a socialite who joins aid workers in Africa and Asia. The film reflected Jolie's real-life interest in promoting humanitarian relief, but it was critically and financially unsuccessful. The ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote, "Jolie, as she did in her Oscar-winning role in ''Girl, Interrupted'', can bring electricity and believability to roles that have a reality she can understand. She can also, witness the ''Lara Croft'' films, do acknowledged cartoons. But the limbo of a hybrid character, a badly written cardboard person in a fly-infested, blood-and-guts world, completely defeats her."

In 2004, Jolie starred alongside Ethan Hawke in the thriller ''Taking Lives''. She portrayed an FBI profiler summoned to help Montreal law enforcement hunt down a serial killer. The movie received mixed reviews and ''The Hollywood Reporter'' concluded, "Angelina Jolie plays a role that definitely feels like something she has already done, but she does add an unmistakable dash of excitement and glamour." She also provided the voice of the angelfish Lola in the DreamWorks animated movie ''Shark Tale'' (2004), and had a brief appearance in ''Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'' (2004), a science fiction adventure film shot entirely with actors in front of a bluescreen. That same year, Jolie played Olympias in ''Alexander'', about the life of Alexander the Great. The film failed domestically, which director Oliver Stone attributed to disapproval of the depiction of Alexander's bisexuality, but it succeeded internationally, with revenue of $139 million outside the United States.

Jolie then starred opposite Brad Pitt in the 2005 action-comedy ''Mr. & Mrs. Smith'', which tells the story of a bored married couple, John and Jane Smith, who find out that they are both secret assassins. The film received mixed reviews, but was generally lauded for the chemistry between the two leads. The ''Star Tribune'' noted, "While the story feels haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the stars' thermonuclear screen chemistry." The movie earned $478 million worldwide, making it the seventh-highest grossing film of 2005.

Jolie next appeared in Robert De Niro's ''The Good Shepherd'' (2006), a film about the early history of the CIA, as seen through the eyes of Edward Wilson, an officer based on James Jesus Angleton and played by Matt Damon. Jolie played the supporting role of Margaret "Clover" Russell, Wilson's neglected wife. According to the ''Chicago Tribune'', "Jolie ages convincingly throughout, and is blithely unconcerned with how her brittle character is coming off in terms of audience sympathy."

In 2007, Jolie made her directorial debut with the documentary ''A Place in Time'', which captures daily life in 27 locations around the world during a single week. The film was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and was intended for distribution to high schools through the National Education Association. Jolie then starred as Mariane Pearl in the documentary-style drama ''A Mighty Heart'' (2007). Based on Pearl's memoir of the same name, the film chronicles the kidnapping and murder of her husband, ''The Wall Street Journal'' reporter Daniel Pearl, in Pakistan. ''The Hollywood Reporter'' described Jolie's performance as "well-measured and moving," played "with respect and a firm grasp on a difficult accent." Jolie was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance. She also played Grendel's mother in the animated epic ''Beowulf'' (2007), which was created through the motion capture technique.

Jolie co-starred alongside James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman in the 2008 action movie ''Wanted'', an adaptation of Mark Millar's graphic novel of the same name. The film received predominately favorable reviews and proved an international success, earning $342 million worldwide. She also provided the voice of Master Tigress in the DreamWorks animated movie ''Kung Fu Panda'' (2008). With revenue of $632 million internationally, it became the third-highest grossing film of 2008. That same year, Jolie took on the lead role in Clint Eastwood's drama ''Changeling''. Based in part on the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, the film stars Jolie as Christine Collins, who is reunited with her kidnapped son in 1928 Los Angeles—only to realize the boy is an impostor. The ''Chicago Tribune'' noted, "Jolie really shines in the calm before the storm, the scenes [...] when one patronizing male authority figure after another belittles her at their peril." Jolie received nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award.

Jolie next starred in the 2010 thriller ''Salt'', her first film in two years. She starred alongside Liev Schreiber as CIA agent Evelyn Salt, who goes on the run after she is accused of being a KGB sleeper agent. Originally written as male, the character Salt underwent a gender change after a Colombia Pictures executive suggested Jolie for the role to director Phillip Noyce. The film was an international success with revenue of $294 million. It received mixed to positive reviews, with Jolie's performance earning praise; ''Empire'' remarked, "When it comes to selling incredible, crazy, death-defying antics, Jolie has few peers in the action business." She also starred opposite Johnny Depp in ''The Tourist'' (2010), which was a major critical failure. Peter Travers wrote, "Depp and Jolie hit career lows, producing the chemistry of high-fashion zombies." After a slow start at the domestic box office, the film went on to gross $278 million worldwide. Jolie received a controversial Golden Globe Award nomination, which was speculated to have been given merely to ensure her high-profile presence at the awards ceremony.

In 2011, Jolie reprised her voice role as Master Tigress in the animated DreamWorks sequel ''Kung Fu Panda 2''. It became the fourth-highest grossing film of 2011 and Jolie's highest grossing film to date, earning $666 million at the international box office. She also made her directorial feature debut with ''In the Land of Blood and Honey'' (2011), a love story between a Serb soldier and a Bosniak prisoner of war, set during the 1992–95 Bosnian War. Jolie, who had twice visited Bosnia-Herzegovina in her capacity as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, explained that she made the film to rekindle attention for the survivors of a war that took place in recent history. The film, which Jolie also scripted and co-produced, aroused both praise and criticism in the Balkans; the response from Bosniak war-victims advocacy organizations was "overwhelmingly positive," while a Serb war prisoners group decried the film for its alleged anti-Serb bias. ''In the Land of Blood and Honey'' received the Producers Guild of America Stanley Kramer Award, as well as a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Jolie will play the Disney villain, Maleficent, in the upcoming film, of the same name, where the character's background story will be revealed.

Humanitarian work

Jolie stated that she first became personally aware of worldwide humanitarian crises while filming ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' (2001) in Cambodia. She contacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for information on international trouble spots. To learn more about the conditions in these areas, Jolie began visiting refugee camps around the world. In February 2001, she went on her first field visit, an 18-day mission to Sierra Leone and Tanzania; she later expressed her shock at what she had witnessed. In the following months, she returned to Cambodia for two weeks and met with Afghan refugees in Pakistan. She covered all costs related to her missions and shared the same rudimentary working and living conditions as UNHCR field staff on all of her visits. Jolie was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva on August 27, 2001.

Since then, Jolie has been on field missions around the world and met with refugees and internally displaced persons in more than 30 countries. Asked what she hoped to accomplish, she stated, "Awareness of the plight of these people. I think they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon." Jolie aims to visit what she terms "forgotten emergencies," crises that media attention has shifted away from. She is noted for not shying away from traveling to areas that are at war: she visited the Darfur region of Sudan during the Darfur conflict in 2004; Chad during its civil war in 2007; Iraq during the Second Gulf War in 2007 and 2009; Afghanistan during the ongoing war in 2008 and 2011; and Libya during the Libyan revolution in 2011.

In addition to her field missions, Jolie uses her public profile to promote humanitarian causes through the mass media. Her early field visits were chronicled in her book ''Notes from My Travels'', which was published in conjunction with the release of her film ''Beyond Borders'' (2003). She filmed a 2005 MTV special, ''The Diary of Angelina Jolie & Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa'', portraying her and noted economist Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on a trip to a remote group of villages in Western Kenya. Jolie has also regularly released public service announcements promoting World Refugee Day and other causes.

Over time, Jolie became more involved in promoting humanitarian causes on a political level. She has regularly attended World Refugee Day in Washington, D.C., and she was an invited speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2005 and 2006. She also began lobbying humanitarian interests in the U.S. capital, where she met with members of Congress at least 20 times between 2003 and 2006, during which she pushed for several bills to aid refugees and vulnerable children in the Third World and the United States. She explained in 2006, "As much as I would love to never have to visit Washington, that's the way to move the ball." In 2007, she became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Jolie has established several charitable organizations. In 2003, she founded the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation—named the Maddox Jolie Project until 2007—which is dedicated to community development and environmental conservation in Cambodia's northwestern province Battambang. In 2006, she partnered with the Global Health Committee to establish the Maddox Chivan Children's Center, a daycare facility for children afflicted and affected by HIV in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. That same year, she and her partner Brad Pitt founded the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, to aid humanitarian causes worldwide. In 2007, Jolie and noted economist Dr. Gene Sperling founded the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which funds education programs for children affected by man-made or natural disasters. In 2008, she collaborated with the Microsoft Corporation to establish Kids in Need of Defense, a pro bono movement of law firms, corporate law departments, NGOs and volunteers committed to providing legal counsel to unaccompanied immigrant children in the U.S. In 2010, she established the Jolie Legal Fellows Programme, which recruits lawyers to support governmental child protection efforts in Haiti.

Jolie has received wide recognition for her humanitarian work. In 2002, she received the inaugural Humanitarian Award by the Church World Service's Immigration and Refugee Program. In 2003, she was the first recipient of the Citizen of the World Award by the United Nations Correspondents Association. In 2005, she was awarded the Global Humanitarian Award by the UNA-USA. On July 31, 2005, King Norodom Sihamoni awarded Jolie Cambodian citizenship for her conservation work in the country. In 2007, Jolie received the Freedom Award by the International Rescue Committee. In 2011, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres presented Jolie with a gold pin reserved for the most long-serving staff, in recognition of her decade as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.

Personal life

Relationships

Jolie had a serious boyfriend for two years from the age of 14. They lived together in her mother's home, of which she has said, "He was my first boyfriend at a time when I wanted to be promiscuous and was starting to be sexual. We were in my bedroom, in my environment, where I was most comfortable and I wasn't in danger." She later compared the relationship to a marriage in its emotional intensity, and said that the breakup compelled her to dedicate herself to her acting career at the age of 16.

During filming of ''Hackers'' (1995), Jolie had a romance with British actor Jonny Lee Miller, her first lover since the relationship in her early teens. Jolie and Miller separated in September 1997 and divorced on February 3, 1999. They remained on good terms, and Jolie later explained, "It comes down to timing. I think he's the greatest husband a girl could ask for. I'll always love him, we were simply too young."

Jolie had a brief relationship with model-actress Jenny Shimizu on the set of ''Foxfire'' (1996). She later said, "I would probably have married Jenny if I hadn't married my husband. I fell in love with her the first second I saw her." Shimizu claimed in 2005 that her relationship with Jolie had lasted many years and continued even while Jolie was romantically involved with other people. In 2003, asked if she was bisexual, Jolie responded, "Of course. If I fell in love with a woman tomorrow, would I feel that it's okay to want to kiss and touch her? If I fell in love with her? Absolutely! Yes!"

After a two-month courtship, Jolie married actor Billy Bob Thornton on May 5, 2000, in Las Vegas. They met on the set of ''Pushing Tin'' (1999), but did not pursue a relationship at that time as Thornton was engaged to actress Laura Dern. As a result of their frequent public declarations of passion and gestures of love—most famously wearing one another's blood in vials around their necks—their marriage became a favorite topic of the entertainment media. Jolie and Thornton announced the adoption of a son from Cambodia in March 2002, but abruptly separated three months later. Their divorce was finalized on May 27, 2003. Asked about the sudden dissolution of their marriage, Jolie stated, "It took me by surprise, too, because overnight, we totally changed. I think one day we had just nothing in common. And it's scary but... I think it can happen when you get involved and you don't know yourself yet."

In early 2005, Jolie was involved in a well-publicized Hollywood scandal when she was accused of being the reason for the divorce of actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. She and Pitt were alleged to have started an affair during filming of ''Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' (2005). She denied this on several occasions, but later admitted that they "fell in love" on the set. She explained in 2005, "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not look at myself in the morning if I did that. I wouldn't be attracted to a man who would cheat on his wife." The couple—dubbed "Brangelina" by the entertainment media—are the subject of worldwide media coverage.

Children

On March 10, 2002, Jolie adopted her first child, seven-month-old Maddox Chivan, from an orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He was born as Rath Vibol on August 5, 2001, in a local village. Jolie applied for adoption after she had visited Cambodia twice, while filming ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' (2001) and on a UNHCR field mission. The adoption process was halted in December 2001 when the U.S. government banned adoptions from Cambodia amid allegations of child trafficking. Once the adoption was finalized, she took custody of Maddox in Namibia, where she was filming ''Beyond Borders'' (2003). Although Jolie and her then-husband Billy Bob Thornton announced the adoption together, she in fact adopted Maddox as a single parent.

Jolie adopted a daughter, six-month-old Zahara Marley, from an orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 6, 2005. Zahara was born as Yemsrach on January 8, 2005, in Awasa. At the time of the adoption, Zahara was wrongly believed to be an AIDS orphan and it was unknown whether she herself had contracted HIV, but she later tested negative. Shortly after they returned to the United States, Zahara was hospitalized for dehydration and malnutrition. In November 2007, media outlets reported that Zahara's biological mother wanted her daughter back, but she denied these reports, saying she thought Zahara was "very fortunate" to have been adopted by Jolie.

Jolie was accompanied by her partner Brad Pitt when she traveled to Ethiopia to take custody of Zahara. She later indicated that she and Pitt had made the decision to adopt from Ethiopia together. In December 2005, Pitt's publicist announced that Pitt was seeking to adopt Maddox and Zahara. To reflect this, Jolie filed a request to legally change her children's surnames from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt, which was granted on January 19, 2006. The adoptions were finalized soon after.

In an attempt to avoid the media frenzy surrounding their relationship, Jolie and Pitt went to Namibia for the birth of their first biological child. On May 27, 2006, Jolie gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel, in Swakopmund. Pitt confirmed that their newborn daughter would have a Namibian passport. The couple decided to sell the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images themselves, rather than allowing paparazzi to make these valuable photographs. ''People'' paid a reported $4.1 million for the North American rights, while ''Hello!'' obtained the British rights for a reported $3.5 million. All profits were donated to charities serving African children.

On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted a son, three-year-old Pax Thien, from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent, because Vietnam's adoption regulations do not allow unmarried couples to co-adopt. The rights for the first post-adoption images of Pax were sold to ''People'' for a reported $2 million, as well as to ''Hello!'' for an undisclosed amount. In April, Jolie filed a request to legally change her son's surname from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt, which was approved on May 31, 2007. Pitt's adoption of Pax was finalized in the United States on February 21, 2008.

At the Cannes Film Festival in May 2008, Jolie confirmed that she was expecting twins. For the two weeks she spent in a seaside hospital in Nice, France, reporters and photographers camped outside on the promenade. She gave birth to a son, Knox Léon, and a daughter, Vivienne Marcheline, on July 12, 2008. The rights for the first images of Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to ''People'' and ''Hello!'' for a reported $14 million—the most expensive celebrity pictures ever taken. The proceeds were donated to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.

In the media

During the first decade of her career, Jolie—who does not employ a publicist or an agent—maintained a "wild child" persona in her communication with the media. She openly discussed her love life, including her bisexuality and her interest in BDSM. After she kissed her brother during the Academy Awards in 2000, their close relationship became the subject of tabloid media speculation, which she dismissed. She spoke about her experiences with drugs and depression, and recalled the time, in 1997, when she almost hired a hitman to kill her, as well as the three days, just before her marriage to Billy Bob Thornton, that she was sectioned at UCLA's psychiatric ward. ''Esquire'' in 2004, American ''FHM'' and British ''Harper's Bazaar'' in 2005, ''People'' and ''Hello!'' in 2006, ''Empire'' in 2007, and ''Vanity Fair'' in 2009. Jolie's extensive collection of tattoos has often been addressed by interviewers. She has fourteen known tattoos, among which the Latin proverb "quod me nutrit me destruit" (what nourishes me destroys me), the Tennessee Williams quote "A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages," two sak yant designs featuring a prayer of protection and a twelve-inch-by-eight-inch tiger, and six sets of geographical coordinates indicating the origins of her children. Over time, she has covered or lasered several of her tattoos, including the name of her second husband, "Billy Bob", and the Chinese characters "死" (death) and "勇" (courage).

Today, Jolie is one of the best-known celebrities around the world. According to the Q Score, in 2000, subsequent to her Oscar win, 31% of respondents in the United States said Jolie was familiar to them; by 2006 she was familiar to 81% of Americans. In a 2006 global industry survey by ACNielsen in 42 international markets, Jolie, together with her partner Brad Pitt, was found to be the favorite celebrity endorser for brands and products worldwide. She was the face of St. John and Shiseido from 2006 to 2008, and in 2011 had an endorsement deal with Louis Vuitton reportedly worth $10 million—a record for a single advertising campaign. She was among the ''Time'' 100, a list of the most influential people in the world as assembled by ''Time'', in 2006 and 2008. ''Forbes'' named her Hollywood's highest-paid actress in 2009 and 2011, with estimated annual earnings of $27 million and $30 million respectively, and she topped the magazine's Celebrity 100, a ranking of the world's most powerful celebrities, in 2009.

Filmography

+ Actor
Title	Year	Role	Notes
''Lookin' to Get Out''	1982	Tosh	As Angelina Jolie Voight
''Cyborg 2''	1993	Casella "Cash" Reese
''Without Evidence''	1995	Jodie Swearingen
! scope="row"	1995	Kate "Acid Burn" Libby
''Love Is All There Is''	1996	Gina Malacici
''Mojave Moon''	1996	Eleanor "Elie" Rigby
! scope="row"	1996	Margret "Legs" Sadovsky
''True Women''	1997	Georgia Virginia Lawshe Woods	TV film
! scope="row"	1997	Cornelia Wallace
! scope="row"	1997	Claire
''Gia''	1998		TV filmGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television FilmSatellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film	1998	Gloria McNeary
''[[Playing by Heart">Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
! scope="row"	1998	Gloria McNeary
''[[Playing by Heart''	1998	Joan
''Pushing Tin''	1999	Mary Bell
''''	1999	Amelia Donaghy
! scope="row"	1999	Lisa Rowe
! scope="row"	2000	Sara "Sway" Wayland
''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider''	2001	Lara Croft
! scope="row"	2001	Julia "Bonny Castle" Russell
''Life or Something Like It''	2002	Lanie Kerrigan
''Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life''	2003	Lara Croft
''Beyond Borders''	2003	Sarah Jordan
! scope="row"	2004	Illeana Scott
''Shark Tale''	2004	Lola	Voice
''Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow''	2004	Francesca "Franky" Cook
! scope="row"	2004	Olympias
! scope="row"	2005	Jane Smith	Nominated— ''''	2006	Margaret "Clover" Russell
''''	2007	[[Mariane Pearl">32nd People's Choice Awards
''''	2006	Margaret "Clover" Russell
''''	2007	[[Mariane Pearl	Santa Barbara International Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance of the YearNominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Female LeadNominated—London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the YearNominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress – Motion PictureNominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Leading Female Actor
! scope="row"	2007	Grendel's mother
''Kung Fu Panda''	2008		Voice
! scope="row"	2008	Fox	People's Choice Award for Favorite Female Action StarNominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Female PerformanceNominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Female Movie Star
! scope="row"	2008	Christine Collins	Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaSaturn Award for Best ActressNominated—Academy Award for Best ActressNominated—	2010	Evelyn Salt	Nominated—[[37th People's Choice Awards
''''	2010	Elise Clifton-Ward	Nominated—[[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy">BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
! scope="row"	2010	Evelyn Salt	Nominated—[[37th People's Choice Awards
''''	2010	Elise Clifton-Ward	Nominated—[[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
''Kung Fu Panda 2''	2011	Master Tigress	Voice

+ Director
Title	Year	Notes
''A Place in Time''	2007	Documentary
''In the Land of Blood and Honey''	2011	Also writer and producerNAACP Image Award for Outstanding Foreign Motion PictureProducers Guild of America Stanley Kramer AwardNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language FilmNominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing – Motion Picture

Selected awards

Year	Award	Category	Film	Result
1998	Emmy Award
1998	Golden Globe Award		''George Wallace''
1998		Breakthrough Performance	''Playing by Heart''
1998	Emmy Award		''Gia''
1999	Golden Globe Award		''Gia''
1999	Screen Actors Guild Award		''Gia''
2000	Academy Award
2000	Golden Globe Award		''Girl, Interrupted''
2000	Screen Actors Guild Award		''Girl, Interrupted''
2008	Golden Globe Award		''''
2008	Screen Actors Guild Award		''''
2009	Academy Award
2009	BAFTA Award		''Changeling''
2009	Golden Globe Award	Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama	''Changeling''
2009	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role	''Changeling''
2011	Golden Globe Award

Bibliography

''Notes from My Travels''. Pocket Books. 2003. ISBN 0-7434-7023-0.

"Justice for Darfur". ''The Washington Post''. February 28, 2007.

"A Year for Accountability". ''The Economist''. November 15, 2007.

"The 2009 TIME 100: Somaly Mam". ''Time''. April 30, 2009.

"The Case Against Omar al-Bashir". ''Time''. June 5, 2009.

"Justice Delayed Is Not Justice Denied". ''Newsweek''. December 10, 2009

References

Further reading

McFay, Edgar. ''Angelina Jolie: Angel in Disguise''. Icon Press, 2005. ISBN 1-894864-25-5.

Wolf, Naomi. "The Power of Angelina". ''Harper's Bazaar''. June 8, 2009.

External links

UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie, official homepage at UNHCR.org

Journey Through Eastern Congo, multimedia journal narrated by Jolie

Interviews with Angelina Jolie by Charlie Rose

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name	Conan O'Brien
birth name	Conan Christopher O'Brien
alias	Coco
birth date	April 18, 1963
birth place	Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
medium	Television
nationality	American
active	1985–present
genre	Improvisational comedy, sketch comedy, physical comedy, surreal humor, self-deprecation
subjects	Self-deprecation, pop culture
influences	Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Robert Smigel
spouse	Elizabeth Ann Powel (since 2002; 2 children)
notable work	''The Simpsons''(writer, producer, 1991–1993)''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''(host, 1993–2009)''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien''(host, 2009–2010) ''Conan'' (host, 2010–present)
education	Harvard University
signature	Conan O'Brien Signature.svg

}} Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted ''Conan'', a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS.

O'Brien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts and raised in an Irish Catholic family. He served as president of the ''Harvard Lampoon'' while attending Harvard University, and was a writer for the sketch comedy series ''Not Necessarily the News''. After writing for several comedy shows in Los Angeles, he joined the writing staff of ''Saturday Night Live'', and later of ''The Simpsons''. He hosted ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' from 1993 to 2009, followed by seven months hosting ''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien'', the only person to serve as host for both NBC programs.

Early life

O'Brien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts (a suburb of Boston) to Thomas O'Brien, a physician, epidemiologist, and professor of medicine at Harvard, and Ruth O'Brien (née Reardon), an attorney and partner at the Boston firm Ropes & Gray. He is the third of six children. O'Brien's family is Irish Catholic and descends from pre-Civil War era immigrants. In a ''Late Night'' episode, O'Brien paid a visit to County Kerry, Ireland, where his ancestors originated.

O'Brien attended Brookline High School, where he served as the managing editor of the school newspaper. In his senior year, O'Brien won the National Council of Teachers of English writing contest with his short story, "To Bury the Living". After graduating as valedictorian in 1981, he entered Harvard University. At Harvard, O'Brien lived in Holworthy Hall during his freshman year and Mather House during his three upper-class years. He concentrated in history and literature and graduated ''magna cum laude'' in 1985. His senior thesis concerned the use of children as symbols in the works of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. Throughout college, O'Brien was a writer for the ''Harvard Lampoon'' humor magazine. He also briefly served as the drummer in a band called "The Bad Clams". During his sophomore and junior years, he served as the ''Lampoon'''s president. At this time, O'Brien's future boss at NBC, Jeff Zucker, was serving as President of the rival ''The Harvard Crimson''.

Career

''Saturday Night Live'' (1987–1991)

O'Brien moved to Los Angeles after graduation to join the writing staff of HBO's ''Not Necessarily the News''. He was also a writer on the short-lived ''The Wilton North Report''. He spent two years with that show and performed regularly with improvisational groups, including The Groundlings. In January 1988, ''Saturday Night Live'''s executive producer, Lorne Michaels, hired O'Brien as a writer. During his three years on ''Saturday Night Live (SNL)'', he wrote such recurring sketches as "Mr. Short-Term Memory" and "The Girl Watchers"; the latter was first performed by Tom Hanks and Jon Lovitz. O'Brien also co-wrote the sketch, "Nude Beach", with Robert Smigel, in which the word "penis" was said or sung at least 42 times. While on a writers' strike from ''Saturday Night Live'' following the 1987–88 season, O'Brien put on an improvisational comedy revue in Chicago with fellow ''SNL'' writers Bob Odenkirk and Robert Smigel called ''Happy Happy Good Show''. While living in Chicago, O'Brien briefly roomed with Jeff Garlin. In 1989, O'Brien and his fellow ''SNL'' writers received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series.

O'Brien, like many ''SNL'' writers, occasionally appeared as an extra in sketches; his most notable appearance was as a doorman in a sketch in which Tom Hanks was inducted into the SNL "Five-Timers Club" for hosting his fifth episode. O'Brien returned to host the show in 2001 during its 26th season. O'Brien and Robert Smigel wrote the television pilot for ''Lookwell'' starring Adam West, which aired on NBC in 1991. The pilot never went to series, but it became a cult hit. It was later screened at ''The Other Network'', a festival of unaired TV pilots produced by Un-Cabaret; it featured an extended interview with O'Brien and was rerun in 2002 on the Trio network.

''The Simpsons'' (1991–1993)

From 1991 to 1993, O'Brien was a writer and producer for ''The Simpsons'' and was credited as writer or co-writer of four episodes. Of all the episodes he wrote, he considers "Marge vs. the Monorail" to be his favorite. Along with this episode, he has sole writing credits on "New Kid on the Block," "Homer Goes to College," and "Treehouse of Horror IV," on which he wrote the episode wraparounds. He was an active producer during seasons 4 and 5 as well, meaning he would frequently contribute to scripts from those seasons as well as come up with story ideas, plot points, and jokes. The style of the show's comedy during this period was also influenced by his sensibilities, with "Marge vs. the Monorail" being cited by several former writers as the turning point in the show's history where more absurd and visual comedy became acceptable. He also developed a reputation as a "room guy," or a writer who performs comedy bits throughout the day to entertain other writers.

In his speech given at Class Day at Harvard in 2000, O'Brien credited ''The Simpsons'' with saving him, a reference to the career slump he was experiencing prior to his being hired for the show.

During his time at ''The Simpsons'', O'Brien also had a side project working with former writing partner Robert Smigel on the script for a musical film based on the "Hans and Franz" sketch from ''Saturday Night Live''. The film was never produced.

''Late Night'' (1993–2009)

As executive producer, Lorne Michaels invited O'Brien to audition to host the successor show to ''Late Night with David Letterman''. Premiering on September 13, 1993, ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' received generally unfavorable critical reviews during its first few years. The show remained on multiweek renewal cycles while NBC decided its fate. O'Brien later poked fun at the first three years of the show, when on his 10th Anniversary Special Mr. T appeared to give O'Brien a gold necklace with a giant "7" on it. When O'Brien tried to point out that he had actually been on the air for ten years, Mr. T responded, "I know that, fool; but you've only been funny for seven!"

Beginning in 1996, O'Brien and the ''Late Night'' writing team were nominated annually for the Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series, winning the award for the first and only time in 2007. In 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2004, he and the ''Late Night'' writing staff won the Writers Guild Award for Best Writing in a Comedy/Variety Series. In 2001, he formed his own television production company, Conaco, which subsequently shared in the production credits for ''Late Night''.

A long-running joke, which stems from the recurring segment "Conan O'Brien Hates My Homeland", is that O'Brien resembles the first female president of Finland, Tarja Halonen. After joking about this for several months (which led to his endorsement of her campaign), O'Brien traveled to Finland, appearing on several television shows and meeting President Halonen. The trip was filmed and aired as a special.

O'Brien ad-libbed the fictional website name "hornymanatee.com" on December 4, 2006, after a sketch about the fictional manatee mascot and its inappropriate webcam site. NBC opted to purchase the website domain name for $159, since the website did not previously exist. The network was concerned that the Federal Communications Commission would hold NBC liable for promoting inappropriate content if a third party were to register the domain and post such material. For a period of time, the website hosted material concerning Conan's initial manatee joke and other ''Tonight Show'' references, but today the site just redirects to NBC's main web page.

A popular recurring bit on the show was "Pale Force", a series of animated episodes in which comedian Jim Gaffigan and O'Brien are superheroes who fight crime with their "paleness". As Gaffigan introduced each new episode, O'Brien protested the portrayal of his character as cowardly, weak, and impotent. , ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' had for eleven years consistently attracted an audience averaging about 2.5 million viewers. O'Brien is an avid guitarist and music listener. When Bruce Springsteen and the Sessions Band appeared on the show as musical guests, O'Brien joined the 17-piece band, along with the Max Weinberg 7 and guests Jimmy Fallon and Thomas Haden Church, playing acoustic guitar and contributing backup vocals for the song "Pay Me My Money Down". On the June 13, 2008, episode of ''Late Night'', O'Brien simply walked onto the stage at the start of the show. Instead of his usual upbeat antics and monologue, O'Brien announced that he had just received news about the sudden death of his good friend, fellow NBC employee and frequent ''Late Night'' guest, Tim Russert. O'Brien proceeded to show two clips of his favorite Russert ''Late Night'' moments. On February 20, 2009, NBC aired the last episode of ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''. The show consisted of a compilation of previous ''Late Night'' clips and included a surprise appearance by former sidekick, Andy Richter. Will Ferrell, John Mayer, and the White Stripes also appeared. O'Brien ended the episode by destroying the set with an axe, handing out the pieces of the set to the audience, and thanking a list of people who helped him get to that point in his career. Among those thanked were Lorne Michaels, David Letterman, Jay Leno, and O'Brien's wife and children.

The Colbert / O'Brien / Stewart mock feud

During the writers' strike in 2008, O'Brien staged a mock feud with Comedy Central's Jon Stewart (of ''The Daily Show'') and Stephen Colbert (of ''The Colbert Report'') over a dispute about which of the three were responsible for giving a "bump" to Mike Huckabee's campaign to become the Republican presidential nominee. This feud crossed over all three shows during the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike.

''The Tonight Show'' (2009–2010)

In 2004, O'Brien negotiated a new contract with NBC. As part of the deal, O'Brien would take over ''The Tonight Show'' from Jay Leno in 2009. O'Brien was a guest on Jay Leno's final episode of ''The Tonight Show''. On June 1, 2009, Will Ferrell became Conan's first ''Tonight Show'' guest on the couch and Pearl Jam appeared as his first musical guest.

During the taping of the Friday, September 25, 2009, episode of ''The Tonight Show'', O'Brien suffered from a mild concussion after he slipped and hit his head while running a race as part of a comedy sketch with guest Teri Hatcher. He was examined at a hospital and released the same day. A rerun was aired that night, but O'Brien returned to work the following Monday and poked fun at the incident.

Departure from ''The Tonight Show''

On Thursday, January 7, 2010, NBC executive Jeff Zucker met with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien to discuss how to get Leno out of prime time, where his ratings were lackluster, and back into late night. A proposal was made that would see O'Brien remain as host of ''The Tonight Show'', which would be moved to 12:05 am with Leno hosting a 30-minute show at 11:35 pm On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that ''The Jay Leno Show'' would indeed end at the start of the Winter Olympics on February 12, 2010, and be moved to 11:35 pm following the Olympics coverage. Sources familiar with the situation told the ''New York Post'' that O'Brien was unhappy with NBC's plan.

On January 12, O'Brien released this statement: "I sincerely believe that delaying ''The Tonight Show'' into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. ''The Tonight Show'' at 12:05 simply isn’t ''The Tonight Show.''" On January 21, 2010, it was announced that Conan had reached a deal with NBC that would see him exit ''The Tonight Show'' the next day. The deal also granted him $45 million, of which $12 million was designated for distribution to his staff, who had moved with Conan to Los Angeles from New York when he left ''Late Night''.

The final ''Tonight Show'' with Conan aired January 22, 2010, and featured guests Tom Hanks, Steve Carell (who did an exit interview and shredded Conan's ID badge), Neil Young (singing "Long May You Run"), and Will Ferrell. For Ferrell's appearance, Conan played guitar with the band and Ferrell sang "Free Bird" while reprising his ''SNL'' cowbell. Ferrell's wife, Viveca Paulin, together with Ben Harper, Beck, and ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, also joined the band for this final performance.

Jay Leno returned to ''The Tonight Show'' following NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Under the $45 million deal with NBC, Conan was allowed to start working for another network as soon as September 2010. Conan's rumored next networks ranged anywhere from Fox to Comedy Central.

After ''Tonight''

On February 8, 2010, it was reported that O'Brien was attempting to sell his Central Park West penthouse in New York with an asking price of $35 million. He purchased the apartment in 2007 for $10 million. Two years earlier, O'Brien had purchased a home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles for over $10.5 million. Some industry insiders have speculated that O'Brien had chosen to stay on the west coast in order to facilitate a return to late night television and because he did not want to put his children through another move.

On February 24, 2010, O'Brien attracted media attention for starting a Twitter account. His tweets, although primarily jokes, amounted to his first public statements since leaving ''The Tonight Show'' one month earlier. After about one hour, O'Brien's subscriber list had rocketed to over 30,000 members and approximately 30 minutes later, he was on the brink of passing 50,000 followers, already 20,000 more than the verified @jayleno account. After 24 hours, O'Brien had well over 300,000 followers. In late May 2010, he surpassed the one million mark for number of Twitter followers, and he has over 3.3 million followers.

O'Brien has been named to the 2010 Time 100, a list compiled by TIME of the 100 most influential people in the world as voted on by readers. After being prohibited from making television appearances of any kind until May, O'Brien spoke about the ''Tonight Show'' conflict on the CBS newsmagazine ''60 Minutes'' on May 2, 2010. During the interview with Steve Kroft, O'Brien said the situation felt "like a marriage breaking up suddenly, violently, quickly. And I was just trying to figure out what happened." He also said he "absolutely" expected NBC to give him more of a chance and that, if in Jay Leno's position, he would not have come back to ''The Tonight Show''. However, Conan said he did not feel he got shafted. "It's crucial to me that anyone seeing this, if they take anything away from this, it's I'm fine. I'm doing great," said O'Brien. "I hope people still find me comedically absurd and ridiculous. And I don't regret anything."

The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour

On March 11, 2010, O'Brien announced via his Twitter account that he would embark on a 30-city live tour beginning April 12, 2010, entitled "The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour". Co-host Andy Richter, along with members of the former Tonight Show Band, joined O'Brien on the tour. Max Weinberg, however, was not able to join, except for a guest appearance at one of Conan's New York City shows. VIP tickets for $695 offered the opportunity to meet O'Brien in person. On the same day, teamcoco.com—an apparently official website—was launched.

On April 12, 2010, O'Brien opened his two-month comedy tour in Eugene, Oregon, with a crowd of 2,500 and no TV cameras. The tour traveled through America's Northwest and Canada before moving on to larger cities, including Los Angeles and New York City, where he performed on the campuses that house both of the NBC-owned studios he formerly occupied. The tour ended in Atlanta on June 14. With ticket prices starting at $40, "The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour" was effectively sold out.

''Conan'' (2010–present)

On April 12, 2010, just hours before the start of his tour in Eugene, Oregon, O'Brien announced that he would host a new show on cable station TBS. The show debuted on November 8, 2010, and airs Monday through Thursday beginning at 11:00 pm ET/10:00 pm CT. O'Brien's addition moved ''Lopez Tonight'' with George Lopez back one hour to midnight ET/11:00 pm CT. Refusing at first to do to Lopez what had happened to him at NBC, O'Brien agreed to join the network after Lopez called to persuade him to come to TBS. In Canada, CTV will air the show and in Turkey, CNBC-e will air the show.

Other networks that were reportedly interested in O'Brien include TBS' sister networks TNT and HBO, Fox, FX, Comedy Central, Showtime, Revision3, and even the NBC Universal-owned USA Network.

On September 1, 2010, O'Brien announced via his Twitter account and Team Coco YouTube page that the title of his new show on TBS would simply be ''Conan''.

Television writer/producer (2002–present)

In 2004, O'Brien apologized to Canadians for engaging in Quebec bashing, something which some felt reflected prejudice against Francophones. On March 7, 2006, NBC announced a new adventure/comedy series entitled ''Andy Barker, P.I.'', starring O'Brien's former sidekick, Andy Richter. O'Brien was executive producer and co-wrote the pilot. After six episodes and low ratings, the show was canceled despite being named by ''Entertainment Weekly'' as one of the Top Ten Shows of 2007. USA Network has handed out a 90-minute, cast-contingent pilot order to the medical-themed ''Operating Instructions'' from O'Brien's production banner. O'Brien will serve as an executive producer through his Conaco label. The script comes from ''Just Shoot Me'' veterans Judd Pillot and John Peaslee who will also executive produce." NBC ordered two pilots from Conaco in January 2010, the one-hour courtroom drama, ''Outlaw'', and a half-hour comedy. ''Outlaw'' was later green-lit to series and premiered on September 15, 2010.

Voice work and guest appearances

O'Brien's first guest appearance after beginning his late-night career was on the show he used to write for, ''The Simpsons''. He played himself in the season five episode "Bart Gets Famous", interviewing Bart Simpson during his rise to fame as a catchphrase comedian. The episode was produced after O'Brien's audition to replace David Letterman, but before he was hired for the show. O'Brien recorded his part after his own show went on the air, though he believed his show would be canceled by the time "Bart Gets Famous" aired. In 2006, he voiced himself in a short ''South Park'' scene as part of the opening of the 2006 Emmy Awards. In 2005, he provided the voice of Robert Todd Lincoln in the audio book version of ''Assassination Vacation'' by Sarah Vowell.

O'Brien has made multiple voice appearances on the Adult Swim series ''Robot Chicken'', including the specials ''Robot Chicken: Star Wars'', and ''Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II'' as the voice of the bounty hunter Zuckuss. On the TV show ''30 Rock'', O'Brien is depicted as an ex-boyfriend of lead character Liz Lemon, who works in the same building. In the episode "Tracy Does Conan," Conan appears as himself, awkwardly reunited with Lemon and coerced by network executive Jack Donaghy into having the character Tracy Jordan on ''Late Night'', despite having been assaulted in Jordan's previous appearance.

O'Brien made an appearance on ''Futurama'' in the second-season episode "Xmas Story". O'Brien plays himself as a head in a jar and still alive in the year 3000. O'Brien performs a stand-up routine at a futuristic ski lodge while being heckled by Bender the robot.

O'Brien also made a cameo appearance on the U.S. version of ''The Office''. In the episode "Valentine's Day", Michael believes that he spots former ''SNL'' cast member, Tina Fey, but has actually mistaken another woman for her. In the meantime, Conan has a quick walk-on and the camera crew informs Michael, when he returns from talking to the Tina Fey lookalike.

In January 2010, O'Brien appeared in ''The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special – In 3-D! On Ice!'' to honor the show he had written for in the early 1990s.

O'Brien created a superhero character with veteran DC Comics animator Bruce Timm during one episode of ''Conan''. Named "The Flaming C", the superhero bears a likeness to O'Brien, with a typically muscular superhero body and costume with chest insignia, but also with idiosyncrasies arbitrarily suggested by O'Brien like an oven mitt, a jai alai glove, marijuana leaf buckle, golf shoes, sock garters and fishnet stockings. O'Brien later aired a clip in which the character appears in ''Young Justice''.

Emmy host

O'Brien hosted the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards on August 27, 2006, to critical acclaim. He had previously hosted the Primetime Emmys in 2002, and co-hosted in 2003.

Commercials and product placements

According to Marketing Evolutions, the company that produces Q Scores measuring the familiarity and appeal of celebrities and brands, almost 74% of U.S. consumers are familiar with O'Brien. In spite of that high score, O'Brien hasn't done many commercials for corporate America; two recent examples are a 2009 appearance in a Super Bowl XLIII commercial for Bud Light, and one for American Express, which debuted on the same day as ''Conan''. He donated his proceeds from the Super Bowl commercial to the Fresh Air Fund, a charity which sends inner-city New York children to the country for vacations. According to ''The Wall Street Journal'', O'Brien was paid more than one million dollars to do the American Express commercial, which required him to spend three days in Jaipur, India filming it.

While O'Brien has done few commercials, he "does do plenty of promoting, weaving product pitches into his show"; he has said "it's increasingly incumbent to help with tie-ins [but] if it can't be funny, I'd rather go hungry."

Comedy and mannerisms

On ''Late Night,'' O'Brien became known for his active and spontaneous hosting style. He started off every show by saying, "We have a great show for you tonight" and ended nearly every show with a quick, quirky "Bye, everybody, bye!" His stage habits included, but were not limited to, mime, self-deprecation, dramatic expressions, various impressions, use of awkward pauses or responses, moving his hair and scalp back and forth and constantly buttoning and unbuttoning his suit jacket. He frequently made fun of and interacted with the audience and commonly made light of his own appearance, including his hairstyle, his pale skin, his clumsiness, and his height. He continued many of these themes into his position as host of ''The Tonight Show''.

One of O'Brien's trademarks is to perform the "string dance." He also does intentionally poor and exaggerated impressions of celebrities that are often reduced to a specific characteristic, phrase, or gesture that represents that person.

Personal life

O'Brien met Elizabeth Ann 'Liza' Powel in 2000 when she appeared on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' in an advertising skit involving Foote, Cone & Belding, where she worked as senior copywriter. The couple dated for nearly 18 months before their 2002 marriage in Powel's hometown of Seattle. O'Brien and Powel have a daughter, Neve (born in 2003) and a son, Beckett (born in 2005).

O'Brien repeatedly affirms his Irish Catholic heritage on his show. On a 2009 episode of ''Inside the Actors Studio'', he stated that both sides of his family moved to America from Ireland in the 1850s, subsequently marrying only other Irish Catholics, and that his lineage is thus 100% Irish Catholic.

He has been a staunch Democrat since casting his first vote for President in 1984 for Walter Mondale, although he considers himself a moderate on the political spectrum. O'Brien's longtime friend and former roommate at Harvard is Father Paul B. O' Brien, with whom he founded ''Labels Are For Jars'', an antihunger organization based in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and helped open the ''Cor Unum'' meal center in 2006. The two are not related.

In January 2008, after his show was put on hold for two months owing to the strike by the Writers Guild of America, he reemerged on late-night TV sporting a beard, which guest Tom Brokaw described as making him look like "a draft dodger from the Civil War." After leaving ''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien'' on Jan. 22, 2010, O'Brien again grew a beard, which he kept until May 2, 2011, when it was partially shaved on the set of his TBS talk show, ''Conan'', by Will Ferrell with battery-operated clippers (and completely shaved off-screen by a professional barber). The event was dubbed on the show as "Beardocalypse," and included a contest for fan-submitted artwork.

O'Brien purchased a $10.5-million mansion in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, to prepare for his move there in 2009 from New York City to host ''The Tonight Show'' at Universal Studios Hollywood. As part of a long running gag, he brought his 1992 Ford Taurus SHO with him to California, showcasing it on both the inaugural episodes of ''The Tonight Show'' and ''Conan''.

Victim of stalking

It was reported that since September 2006, O'Brien had allegedly been stalked by Father David Ajemian of the Archdiocese of Boston, who, despite multiple warnings to stop, had been sending O'Brien letters signed as "your priest stalker" and coming in contact with O'Brien's parents. Frustrated that he had been denied a spot in the ''Late Night'' audience, Ajemian sent a letter to O'Brien stating that he flew to New York "in the dimming hope that you might finally acknowledge me." He stated in another letter, "Is this the way you treat your most dangerous fans??? You owe me big time, pal." In another letter, Ajemian seemed to make a death threat, saying, "Remember Frank Costello once dodged a bullet in your building and so can you." Ajemian then tried to forcefully enter a taping of ''Late Night'' but was caught and arrested. He was previously warned by the NBC security team to stay away from the studio. After a psychological evaluation, he was deemed fit to stand trial. He has since been bailed out of jail. He was then reported missing by his father on November 10, 2007. He was found and underwent evaluation at a hospital. It is known that the two had attended Harvard University at the same time. He was found fit to stand trial on April 4, 2008. On April 8, 2008, Ajemian pleaded guilty to stalking, stating that he "never meant to cause anxiety or to upset anyone." He was ordered to pay a $95 US$ court charge and to sign a two-year restraining order barring him from coming near O'Brien. On September 11, 2008, Ajemian checked himself out of his treatment at a hospital against the wishes of his bishop, Seán Patrick O'Malley. Cardinal O'Malley then released a statement saying that because he violated his bishop's wishes, Ajemian could no longer serve as a priest in the Catholic Church. As of late 2010, Ajemian has moved on to stalking Anthony Everett.

Nicknames

Conan acquired the nickname "Coco" after its use in the first "Twitter Tracker" sketch during the second episode of his ''Tonight Show'' run. Guest Tom Hanks used the nickname during his subsequent interview, even getting the audience to chant it. In reaction to the moniker, Conan remarked to Hanks in jest, "If that catches on, I'll sue you."

In a March 23, 2011, interview with WWE Champion The Miz on ''Conan'', The Miz dubbed Conan "The Ginja Ninja", a reference to Conan's red hair and the fact that he came back fighting to get his new late-night talk show. A week later, "Team Ginja Ninja" T-shirts were available on TeamCoco.com.

Filmography

;Appearances on talk shows: Guest appearance on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' (1993, 2007, 2008, 2009)

Guest appearance on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' (1993)

Guest appearance on ''The Jon Stewart Show'' (1993)

''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (1993–2009)

Guest appearance on ''Last Call with Carson Daly'' (2002)

Guest appearance on ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'' (2007, 2008)

Guest appearance on ''The Colbert Report'' (2007, 2008)

''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' (2009)

''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien'' (2009–2010)

Guest appearance on ''Lopez Tonight'' (2010, 2011)

''Conan'' (November 8, 2010–)

;Other shows:

''Saturday Night Live'' (1991, 2001)

''The Simpsons'' (''as himself'') (1994)

''Space Ghost: Coast to Coast'' (''as himself'') (1999)

''Mr. Show with Bob and David'' (1995)

''The Single Guy'' (1996)

''Arli$$'' (1996)

''Spin City'' (1999)

''Futurama'' (1999)

''Storytelling'' (2001)

''Vanilla Sky'' (2001)

''Sugar & Spice'' (2001) ''(cameo in end credits)''

''Dr. Katz'' (''as himself'') (2002)

''Andy Richter Controls the Universe'' (2003)

''End of the Century'' (2003)

''Bewitched'' (''as himself'') (2005)

''Robot Chicken'' (2005)

''The Denial Twist (The White Stripes music video)'' (2005)

''O'Grady'' (2006)

''The Office'' ''(cameo)'' (2006)

''Queer Duck'' (''as himself'') (2006)

''30 Rock'' (''as himself'') (2007, 2009)

Robot Chicken Star Wars (as ''Zuckuss'') (2007)

''Sesame Street'' (2008)

''Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II'' (as ''Zuckuss'', Star Wars nerd) (2008)

''The Backyardigans'' (2009)

''60 Minutes'' (interview) (2010)

''Eagleheart'' (himself) (2010)

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Work	Category	Result
1989	Emmy Award		Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program
1990	Emmy Award	Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program
1991	Emmy Award	Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program
1996	Emmy Award		Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
1998	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
People's Choice Award	Favorite Late Night Talk Show Host
Telvis Award	For the color spot of the year	Special Telvis
Writers Guild of America Award		Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
People's Choice Award	Favorite Late Night Talk Show Host
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
2008	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
			Outstanding Comedy, Music or Variety Series
Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	People's Choice Award	rowspan="4"	Favorite TV Talk Show Host
	Outstanding Comedy, Music or Variety Series
Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series
Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series
American Express	Outstanding Commercial

References

Further reading

External links

in 2006 in 1998

TMZ page on Conan O'Brien

I'm With Coco Facebook

Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:American comedians Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American television writers Category:Emmy Award winners Category:The Groundlings Category:Harvard Lampoon people Category:Harvard University alumni Category:American comedians of Irish descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:Late night television talk show hosts Category:Late Night with Conan O'Brien Category:People from Brookline, Massachusetts Category:Writers from Massachusetts Category:Massachusetts Democrats

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