The term mythology can refer to either the study of myths, or to a body of myths. For example, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, Many scholars in other fields use the term "myth" in somewhat different ways. In a very broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story.

Nature of myths

Typical characteristics

The main characters in myths are usually gods, supernatural heroes and humans. As sacred stories, myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and closely linked to religion. In the society in which it is told, a myth is usually regarded as a true account of the remote past. In fact, many societies have two categories of traditional narrative, "true stories" or myths, and "false stories" or fables. Myths generally take place in a primordial age, when the world had not yet achieved its current form, and explain how the world gained its current form and how customs, institutions and taboos were established.

Related concepts

Closely related to myth are legend and folktale. Myths, legends, and folktales are different types of traditional story. Unlike myths, folktales can take place at any time and any place, and they are not considered true or sacred by the societies that tell them. Like myths, legends are stories that are traditionally considered true, but are set in a more recent time, when the world was much as it is today. Legends generally feature humans as their main characters, whereas myths generally focus on superhuman characters.

The distinction between myth, legend, and folktale is meant simply as a useful tool for grouping traditional stories. In many cultures, it is hard to draw a sharp line between myths and legends. Instead of dividing their traditional stories into myths, legends, and folktales, some cultures divide them into two categories, one that roughly corresponds to folktales, and one that combines myths and legends. Even myths and folktales are not completely distinct. A story may be considered true (and therefore a myth) in one society, but considered fictional (and therefore a folktale) in another society. In fact, when a myth loses its status as part of a religious system, it often takes on traits more typical of folktales, with its formerly divine characters reinterpreted as human heroes, giants, or fairies.

Myth, legend, saga, fable, folktale, or marchens are only a few of the categories of traditional stories. Other categories include anecdotes and some kinds of jokes. Traditional stories, in turn, are only one category within folklore, which also includes items such as gestures, costumes, and music.

Origins of myth

Euhemerism

One theory claims that myths are distorted accounts of real historical events. According to this theory, storytellers repeatedly elaborated upon historical accounts until the figures in those accounts gained the status of gods. For example, one might argue that the myth of the wind-god Aeolus evolved from a historical account of a king who taught his people to use sails and interpret the winds. Herodotus (5th century BC) and Prodicus made claims of this kind. This theory is named "euhemerism" after the mythologist Euhemerus (c.320 BC), who suggested that the Greek gods developed from legends about human beings.

Allegory

Some theories propose that myths began as allegories. According to one theory, myths began as allegories for natural phenomena: Apollo represents fire, Poseidon represents water, and so on. According to another theory, myths began as allegories for philosophical or spiritual concepts: Athena represents wise judgment, Aphrodite represents desire, etc. The 19th century Sanskritist Max Müller supported an allegorical theory of myth. He believed that myths began as allegorical descriptions of nature, but gradually came to be interpreted literally: for example, a poetic description of the sea as "raging" was eventually taken literally, and the sea was then thought of as a raging god.

Personification

Some thinkers believe that myths resulted from the personification of inanimate objects and forces. According to these thinkers, the ancients worshipped natural phenomena such as fire and air, gradually coming to describe them as gods. For example, according to the theory of mythopoeic thought, the ancients tended to view things as persons, not as mere objects; thus, they described natural events as acts of personal gods, thus giving rise to myths.

The myth-ritual theory

According to the myth-ritual theory, the existence of myth is tied to ritual. In its most extreme form, this theory claims that myths arose to explain rituals. This claim was first put forward by the biblical scholar William Robertson Smith. According to Smith, people begin performing rituals for some reason that is not related to myth; later, after they have forgotten the original reason for a ritual, they try to account for the ritual by inventing a myth and claiming that the ritual commemorates the events described in that myth. The anthropologist James Frazer had a similar theory. Frazer believed that primitive man starts out with a belief in magical laws; later, when man begins to lose faith in magic, he invents myths about gods and claims that his formerly magical rituals are religious rituals intended to appease the gods.

Functions of myth

Mircea Eliade argued that one of the foremost functions of myth is to establish models for behavior and that myths may also provide a religious experience. By telling or reenacting myths, members of traditional societies detach themselves from the present and return to the mythical age, thereby bringing themselves closer to the divine.

Lauri Honko asserts that, in some cases, a society will reenact a myth in an attempt to reproduce the conditions of the mythical age. For example, it will reenact the healing performed by a god at the beginning of time in order to heal someone in the present. Similarly, Roland Barthes argues that modern culture explores religious experience. Because it is not the job of science to define human morality, a religious experience is an attempt to connect with a perceived moral past, which is in contrast with the technological present.

Joseph Campbell defined myths as having four basic functions: the Mystical Function—experiencing the awe of the universe; the Cosmological Function—explaining the shape of the universe; the Sociological Function—supporting and validating a certain social order; and the Pedagogical Function—how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances.

The study of mythology: a historical overview

Historically, the important approaches to the study of mythology have been those of Vico, Schelling, Schiller, Jung, Freud, Lévy-Bruhl, Lévi-Strauss, Frye, the Soviet school, and the Myth and Ritual School.

Pre-modern theories

The critical interpretation of myth goes back as far as the Presocratics. Euhemerus was one of the most important pre-modern mythologists. He interpreted myths as accounts of actual historical events, distorted over many retellings. This view of myths and their origin is criticised by Plato in the ''Phaedrus'' (229d), in which Socrates says that this approach is the province of one who is "vehemently curious and laborious, and not entirely happy . . ." The Platonists generally had a more profound and comprehensive view of the subject. Sallustius, for example, divides myths into five categories – theological, physical (or concerning natural laws), animastic (or concerning soul), material and mixed. This last being those myths which show the interaction between two or more of the previous categories and which, he says, are particularly used in initiations.

Although Plato famously condemned poetic myth when discussing the education of the young in the ''Republic'', primarily on the grounds that there was a danger that the young and uneducated might take the stories of Gods and heroes literally, nevertheless he constantly refers to myths of all kinds throughout his writings. As Platonism developed in the phases commonly called 'middle Platonism' and neoplatonism, such writers as Plutarch, Porphyry, Proclus, Olympiodorus and Damascius wrote explicitly about the symbolic interpretation of traditional and Orphic myths.

Interest in polytheistic mythology revived in the Renaissance, with early works on mythography appearing in the 16th century, such as the ''Theologia mythologica'' (1532).

19th-century theories

The first scholarly theories of myth appeared during the second half of the 19th century.

For example, E. B. Tylor interpreted myth as an attempt at a literal explanation for natural phenomena: unable to conceive of impersonal natural laws, early man tried to explain natural phenomena by attributing souls to inanimate objects, giving rise to animism. According to Tylor, human thought evolves through various stages, starting with mythological ideas and gradually progressing to scientific ideas. Not all scholars — not even all 19th century scholars — have agreed with this view. For example, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl claimed that "the primitive mentality is a condition of the human mind, and not a stage in its historical development."

Max Müller called myth a "disease of language". He speculated that myths arose due to the lack of abstract nouns and neuter gender in ancient languages: anthropomorphic figures of speech, necessary in such languages, were eventually taken literally, leading to the idea that natural phenomena were conscious beings, gods.

The anthropologist James Frazer saw myths as a misinterpretation of magical rituals; which were themselves based on a mistaken idea of natural law. According to Frazer, man begins with an unfounded belief in impersonal magical laws. When he realizes that his applications of these laws don't work, he gives up his belief in natural law, in favor of a belief in personal gods controlling nature — thus giving rise to religious myths. Meanwhile, man continues practicing formerly magical rituals through force of habit, reinterpreting them as reenactments of mythical events. Finally, Frazer contends, man realizes that nature does follow natural laws, but now he discovers their true nature through science. Here, again, science makes myth obsolete: as Frazer puts it, man progresses "from magic through religion to science".

20th century theories

Many 20th century theories of myth rejected the 19th-century theories' opposition of myth and science. In general, "twentieth-century theories have tended to see myth as almost anything but an outdated counterpart to science […] Consequently, moderns are not obliged to abandon myth for science."

Joseph Campbell believed that there were two different orders of mythology: that there are myths that, "are metaphorical of spiritual potentiality in the human being", and that there are myths, "that have to do with specific societies".

Claude Lévi-Strauss believed that myths reflect patterns in the mind and interpreted those patterns more as fixed mental structures — specifically, pairs of opposites (i.e. good/evil, compassionate/callous) — than as unconscious feelings or urges.

In his appendix to ''Myths, Dreams and Mysteries'', and in ''The Myth of the Eternal Return'', Mircea Eliade attributed modern man’s anxieties to his rejection of myths and the sense of the sacred.

In the 1950s, Roland Barthes published a series of essays examining modern myths and the process of their creation in his book ''Mythologies''.

Examples of myths

Below are some examples of myths.

Creation of man by Prometheus (Greek)

Prometheus and Epimetheus were spared imprisonment in Tartarus because they had not fought with their fellow Titans during the war with the Olympians. They were given the task of creating man. Prometheus shaped man out of mud, and Athena breathed life into his clay figure.

Prometheus had assigned Epimetheus the task of giving the creatures of the earth their various qualities, such as swiftness, cunning, strength, fur, wings. Unfortunately, by the time he got to man Epimetheus had given all the good qualities out and there were none left for man. So Prometheus decided to make man stand upright as the gods did and to give them fire.

Prometheus loved man more than the Olympians, who had banished most of his family to Tartarus. So when Zeus decreed that man must present a portion of each animal they sacrificed to the gods Prometheus decided to trick Zeus. He created two piles, one with the bones wrapped in juicy fat, the other with the good meat hidden in the hide. He then bade Zeus to pick. Zeus picked the bones. Since he had given his word, Zeus had to accept that as his share for future sacrifices. In his anger over the trick, Zeus took fire away from man. However, Prometheus lit a torch from the sun and brought it back again to man. Zeus was enraged that man again had fire. He decided to inflict a terrible punishment on both man and Prometheus.

To punish man, Zeus had Hephaestus create a mortal of stunning beauty. The gods gave the mortal many gifts of wealth. He then had Hermes give the mortal a deceptive heart and a lying tongue. This creation was Pandora, the first women. A final gift was a jar which Pandora was forbidden to open. Thus, completed Zeus sent Pandora down to Epimetheus who was staying amongst the men.

Prometheus had warned Epimetheus not to accept gifts from Zeus but, Pandora's beauty was too great and he allowed her to stay. Eventually, Pandora's curiosity about the jar she was forbidden to open became too great. She opened the jar and out flew all manor of evils, sorrows, plagues, and misfortunes. However, the bottom of the jar held one good thing - hope.

Zeus was angry at Prometheus for three things: being tricked on sacrifices, stealing fire for man, and for refusing to tell Zeus which of Zeus's children would dethrone him. Zeus had his servants, Force and Violence, seize Prometheus, take him to the Caucasus Mountains, and chain him to a rock with unbreakable adamanite chains. Here he was tormented day and night by a giant eagle tearing at his liver. Zeus gave Prometheus two ways out of this torment. He could tell Zeus who the mother of the child that would dethrone him was. Or meet two conditions: First, that an immortal must volunteer to die for Prometheus. Second, that a mortal must kill the eagle and unchain him. Eventually, Chiron the Centaur agreed to die for him and Heracles killed the eagle and unbounded him.

Birth of Athena (Greek)

Zeus came to lust after Metis and chased her in his direct way. Metis tried to escape, going so far as to change her form many times by turning into various creatures, such as hawks, fish, and serpents. However, Zeus was both determined and equally proficient in changing form. He continued his pursuit until she relented.

An Oracle of Gaea then prophesied that Metis' first child would be a girl, but her second child would be a boy that would overthrow Zeus as had happened to his father and grandfather. Zeus took this warning to heart. When he next saw Metis, he flattered her and put her at her ease. Then, with Metis off guard Zeus, suddenly opened his mouth and swallowed her. This was the end of Metis, but possibly the beginning of Zeus' wisdom.

After a time Zeus developed the mother of all headaches. He howled so loudly it could be heard throughout the earth. The other gods came to see what the problem was. Hermes realized what needed to be done and directed Hephaestus to take a wedge and split open Zeus's skull. Out of the skull sprang Athena, full grown and in a full set of armour. Due to her manner of birth, Athena has dominion over all things of the intellect.

Comparative mythology

Comparative mythology is the systematic comparison of myths from different cultures. It seeks to discover underlying themes that are common to the myths of multiple cultures. However, modern-day scholars tend to be more suspicious of comparative approaches, avoiding overly general or universal statements about mythology. One exception to this modern trend is Joseph Campbell's book ''The Hero With a Thousand Faces'' (1949), which claims that all hero myths follow the same underlying pattern. This theory of a "monomyth" is out of favor with the mainstream study of mythology.

See also

;General: Archetypal literary criticism, Artificial mythology, Creation myth, Deluge myth, Legendary creature, LGBT themes in mythology, Geomythology, Mytheme, Mythical place, Mythography, National myth, Origin of death myth‎ ;Mythological archetypes: Culture hero, Death deity, Earth Mother, First man or woman, Hero, Life-death-rebirth deity, Lunar deity, Psychopomp, Sky father, Solar deity, Trickster, Underworld ;Myth and religion: Religion and mythology, Magic and mythology, Hindu mythology, Chinese mythology, Christian mythology (Jesus Christ in comparative mythology), Jewish mythology, Islamic mythology ;Lists: List of mythologies, List of deities, List of mythical objects, List of legendary creatures, List of legendary creatures by type, List of women warriors in folklore

Notes

References

Armstrong, Karen. "A Short History of Myth". Knopf Canada, 2006.

Bascom, William. "The Forms of Folklore: Prose Narratives". '''Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth''. Ed. Alan Dundes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. 5-29.

Bulfinch, Thomas. ''Bulfinch's Mythology''. Whitefish: Kessinger, 2004.

Campbell, Joeseph. "The Power of Myth". Ney York:Doubleday, 1988.

Doty, William. ''Myth: A Handbook''. Westport: Greenwood, 2004.

Dundes, Alan. "Binary Opposition in Myth: The Propp/Levi-Strauss Debate in Retrospect". ''Western Folklore'' 56 (Winter, 1997): 39-50.

Dundes, Alan. Introduction. ''Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth''. Ed. Alan Dundes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. 1-3.

Dunes, Alan. "Madness in Method Plus a Plea for Projective Inversion in Myth". ''Myth and Method''. Ed. Laurie Patton and Wendy Doniger. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1996.

Eliade, Mircea. ''Myth and Reality''. Trans. Willard R. Trask. New York: Harper & Row, 1963.

Eliade, Mircea. ''Myths, Dreams and Mysteries''. Trans. Philip Mairet. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

"Euhemerism". ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions''. Ed. John Bowker. Oxford University Press, 2000. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. UC - Berkeley Library. 20 March 2009 .

Fabiani, Paolo "The Philosophy of the Imagination in Vico and Malebranche". F.U.P. (Florence UP), English edition 2009. PDF

Frankfort, Henri, et al. ''The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay on Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East''. Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1977.

Frazer, James. ''The Golden Bough''. New York: Macmillan, 1922.

Graf, Fritz. ''Greek Mythology''. Trans. Thomas Marier. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.

Honko, Lauri. "The Problem of Defining Myth". ''Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth''. Ed. Alan Dundes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. 41-52.

Kirk, G.S. ''Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures''. Berkeley: Cambridge University Press, 1973.

Kirk, G.S. "On Defining Myths". ''Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth''. Ed. Alan Dundes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. 53-61.

Leonard, Scott. "The History of Mythology: Part I". ''Scott A. Leonard's Home Page''. August 2007.Youngstown State University, 17 November 2009

Littleton, Covington. ''The New Comparative Mythology: An Anthropological Assessment of the Theories of Georges Dumezil''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.

Meletinsky, Elea. ''The Poetics of Myth''. Trans. Guy Lanoue and Alexandre Sadetsky. New York: Routledge, 2000.

"myth." ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 21 March 2009

"myths". ''A Dictionary of English Folklore''. Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud. Oxford University Press, 2000. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. UC - Berkeley Library. 20 March 2009 Oxfordreference.com

Northup, Lesley. "Myth-Placed Priorities: Religion and the Study of Myth". ''Religious Studies Review'' 32.1(2006): 5-10.

O'Flaherty, Wendy. ''Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook''. London: Penguin, 1975.

Pettazzoni, Raffaele. "The Truth of Myth". ''Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth''. Ed. Alan Dundes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. 98-109.

Segal, Robert. ''Myth: A Very Short Introduction''. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004.

Simpson, Michael. Introduction. Apollodorus. ''Gods and Heroes of the Greeks''. Trans. Michael Simpson. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1976. 1-9.

Further reading

Stefan Arvidsson, ''Aryan Idols. Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science'', University of Chicago Press, 2006. ISBN0-226-02860-7

Roland Barthes, ''Mythologies'' (1957)

Kees W. Bolle, ''The Freedom of Man in Myth''. Vanderbilt University Press, 1968.

Richard Buxton. ''The Complete World of Greek Mythology''. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004.

E. Csapo, ''Theories of Mythology'' (2005)

Edith Hamilton, ''Mythology'' (1998)

Graves, Robert. "Introduction." ''New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology''. Trans. Richard Aldington and Delano Ames. London: Hamlyn, 1968. v-viii.

Joseph Campbell

*''The Hero with a Thousand Faces''. Princeton University Press, 1949.

*''Flight of the Wild Gander: Explorations in the Mythological Dimension: Select Essays 1944-1968'' New World Library, 3rd ed. (2002), ISBN 978-1-57731-210-9.

*''The Power of Myth''. Doubleday, 1988, ISBN 0-385-24773-7.

*''Thou Art That (book)''. New World Library, 2001, ISBN 1-57731-202-3

Mircea Eliade

*''Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return''. Princeton University Press, 1954.

*''The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion''. Trans. Willard R. Trask. NY: Harper & Row, 1961.

Louis Herbert Gray [ed.], ''The Mythology of All Races'', in 12 vols., 1916.

Lucien Lévy-Bruhl

*''Mental Functions in Primitive Societies'' (1910)

*''Primitive Mentality'' (1922)

*''The Soul of the Primitive'' (1928)

*''The Supernatural and the Nature of the Primitive Mind'' (1931)

*''Primitive Mythology'' (1935)

*''The Mystic Experience and Primitive Symbolism'' (1938)

Charles H. Long, ''Alpha: The Myths of Creation''. George Braziller, 1963.

O'Flaherty, Wendy. ''Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook''. London: Penguin, 1975.

Barry B. Powell, ''Classical Myth'', 5th edition, Prentice-Hall.

Santillana and Von Dechend (1969, 1992 re-issue). ''Hamlet's Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge And Its Transmission Through Myth'', Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-87923-215-3.

Walker, Steven F. and Segal, Robert A., ''Jung and the Jungians on Myth: An Introduction'', Theorists of Myth, Routledge (1996), ISBN 978-0-8153-2259-7.

Zong, In-Sob. ''Folk Tales from Korea''. 3rd ed. Elizabeth: Hollym, 1989.

External links

The New Student's Reference Work/Mythology, ed. Beach (1914), at wikisource.

Leonard, Scott. "The History of Mythology: Part I". Youngstown State University.

Myths and Myth-Makers Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by comparative mythology by John Fiske.

Porphyry on the Homer's Cave of the Nymphs, tr. Thomas Taylor

M.A./Ph.D. Mythological Studies degree

Category:Anthropology of religion Category:Cultural anthropology Category:Greek loanwords Category:Spirituality Category:Traditions

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name	Jackie Chan
tradchinesename
simpchinesename
pinyinchinesename	Chéng Lóng
jyutpingchinesename	Sing4 Lung4
birth name	Chan Kong-sang Chén Gǎngshēng Can4 Gong2 Sang1
ancestry	Linzi, Shandong, China
origin	Hong Kong
birth date	April 07, 1954
birth place	Victoria Peak, Hong Kong
fighting styles	Wing Chun, Hapkido, Drunken Fist, Tiger.
othername	(Fong Si-lung) (Yuen Lou) (Big Brother)
occupation	Actor, martial artist, director, producer, screenwriter, action choreographer, singer, stunt director, stunt performer
genre	Cantopop, Mandopop, Hong Kong English pop, J-pop
yearsactive	1962–present
spouse	Lin Feng-jiao (1982–present)
children	Jaycee Chan (born 1982)
parents	Charles and Lee-Lee Chan
influences	Bruce LeeBuster KeatonHarold LloydJim Carrey
hongkongfilmwards	Best Film1989 ''Rouge''Best Action Choreography1996 ''Rumble in the Bronx''1999 ''Who Am I?'' Professional Spirit Award2004
goldenhorseawards	Best Actor1992 ''Police Story 3''1993 ''Crime Story''
goldenroosterawards	Best Actor2005 ''New Police Story''
mtvasiaawards	Inspiration Award2002
awards	MTV Movie Awards2002 Best Fight (''Rush Hour 2'')1999 Best Fight (''Rush Hour'')1995 Lifetime Achievement AwardShanghai International Film Festival2005 Outstanding Contribution to Chinese Cinema }}

Jackie Chan, SBS, MBE (born Chan Kong-sang, }}; 7 April 1954) is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts. Jackie Chan has been acting since the 1960s and has appeared in over 100 films.

Chan has received stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As a cultural icon, Chan has been referenced in various pop songs, cartoons, and video games. An operatically trained vocalist, Chan is also a Cantopop and Mandopop star, having released a number of albums and sung many of the theme songs for the films in which he has starred.

Early life

Chan was born on 7 April 1954, in Hong Kong, China, as Chan Kong-sang, to Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, refugees from the Chinese Civil War. He was nicknamed ''Paopao'' (, literally meaning "Cannonball") because the high-energy child was always rolling around. Since his parents worked for the French Consul to Hong Kong, Chan spent his formative years within the grounds of the consul's residence in the Victoria Peak district.

Chan attended the Nah-Hwa Primary School on Hong Kong Island, where he failed his first year, after which his parents withdrew him from the school. In 1960, his father immigrated to Canberra, Australia, to work as the head cook for the American embassy, and Chan was sent to the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School run by Master Yu Jim-yuen. Chan trained rigorously for the next decade, excelling in martial arts and acrobatics. He eventually became part of the Seven Little Fortunes, a performance group made up of the school's best students, gaining the stage name Yuen Lo in homage to his master. Chan became close friends with fellow group members Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, the three of them later to be known as the ''Three Brothers'' or ''Three Dragons''.

At the age of 8, he appeared with some of his fellow "Little Fortunes," in the film ''Big and Little Wong Tin Bar'' (1962), with Li Li Hua playing his mother. Chan appeared with Li again the following year, in ''The Love Eterne'' (1963) and had a small role in King Hu's 1966 film, ''Come Drink with Me''. In 1971, after an appearance as an extra in another Kong Fu film, ''A Touch of Zen'', Chan began his adult career in the film industry, initially signing to Chu Mu's Great Earth Film Company. At the age of 17, he worked as a stuntman in the Bruce Lee films ''Fist of Fury'' and ''Enter the Dragon'' under the stage name Chan Yuen Lung (). He received his first starring role later that year, in ''Little Tiger of Canton'', which had a limited release in Hong Kong in 1973. Due to the commercial failures in his early ventures into films and trouble finding stunt work, in 1975 Chan starred in a comedic adult film, ''All in the Family'', which features Jackie Chan's first and possibly only nude sex scene filmed to date. It is also the only film he has made to date that did not feature a single fight scene or stunt sequence.

Chan joined his parents in Canberra in 1976, where he briefly attended Dickson College and worked as a construction worker. A fellow builder named Jack took Chan under his wing, earning Chan the nickname of "Little Jack" which was later shortened to "Jackie" and the name Jackie Chan stuck with him ever since. In addition, in the late 90s, Chan changed his Chinese name to Fong Si-lung (), since his father's original surname was Fong.

Film career

Early exploits: 1976–1979

In 1976, Jackie Chan received a telegram from Willie Chan, a film producer in the Hong Kong film industry who had been impressed with Jackie's stuntwork. Willie Chan offered him an acting role in a film directed by Lo Wei. Lo had seen Chan's performance in the John Woo film ''Hand of Death'' (1976) and planned to model him after Bruce Lee with the film ''New Fist of Fury''. His stage name was changed to Sing Lung (, also transcribed as Cheng Long, literally "become the dragon") to emphasise his similarity to Bruce Lee, whose stage name was Lei Siu-lung (, meaning "Little Dragon"). The film was unsuccessful because Chan was not accustomed to Lee's martial arts style. Despite the film's failure, Lo Wei continued producing films with similar themes, resulting in little improvement at the box office.

Chan's first major breakthrough was the 1978 film ''Snake in the Eagle's Shadow'', shot while he was loaned to Seasonal Film Corporation under a two-picture deal. Under director Yuen Woo-ping, Chan was allowed complete freedom over his stunt work. The film established the comedic kung fu genre, and proved to be a breath of fresh air for the Hong Kong audience. Chan then starred in ''Drunken Master'', which finally propelled him to mainstream success.

Upon Chan's return to Lo Wei's studio, Lo tried to replicate the comedic approach of ''Drunken Master'', producing ''Half a Loaf of Kung Fu'' and ''Spiritual Kung Fu''. He also gave Chan the opportunity to co-direct ''The Fearless Hyena'' with Kenneth Tsang. When Willie Chan left the company, he advised Jackie to decide for himself whether or not to stay with Lo Wei. During the shooting of ''Fearless Hyena Part II'', Chan broke his contract and joined Golden Harvest, prompting Lo to blackmail Chan with triads, blaming Willie for his star's departure. The dispute was resolved with the help of fellow actor and director Jimmy Wang Yu, allowing Chan to stay with Golden Harvest.

Success of the action comedy genre: 1980–1987

Willie Chan had become Jackie's personal manager and firm friend, and has remained so for over 30 years. He was instrumental in launching Chan's international career, beginning with his first forays into the American film industry in the 1980s. His first Hollywood film was ''Battle Creek Brawl'' in 1980. Chan then played a minor role in the 1981 film ''The Cannonball Run,'' which grossed US$100 million worldwide. Despite being largely ignored by audiences in favour of established American actors like Burt Reynolds, Chan was impressed by the outtakes shown at the closing credits, inspiring him to include the same device in his future films.

After the commercial failure of ''The Protector'' in 1985, Chan temporarily abandoned his attempts to break into the US market, returning his focus to Hong Kong films.

Back in Hong Kong, Chan's films began to reach a larger audience in East Asia, with early successes in the lucrative Japanese market including ''The Young Master'' (1980) and ''Dragon Lord'' (1982). ''The Young Master'' went on to beat previous box office records set by Bruce Lee and established Chan as Hong Kong cinema's top star. With ''Dragon Lord'', he began experimenting with elaborate stunt action sequences, including a pyramid fight scene that holds the record for the most takes for a single scene with 2900 takes, and the final fight scene where he performs various stunts, including one where he does a back flip off a loft and falls to the lower ground.

Chan produced a number of action comedy films with his opera school friends Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. The three co-starred together for the first time in 1983 in ''Project A,'' which introduced a dangerous stunt-driven style of martial arts that won it the Best Action Design Award at the third annual Hong Kong Film Awards. Over the following two years, the "Three Brothers" appeared in ''Wheels on Meals'' and the original ''Lucky Stars'' trilogy. In 1985, Chan made the first ''Police Story'' film, a US-influenced action comedy in which Chan performed a number of dangerous stunts. It was named the "Best Film" at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards. In 1987, Chan played "Asian Hawk," an Indiana Jones-esque character, in the film ''Armour of God.'' The film was Chan's biggest domestic box office success up to that point, grossing over HK $35 million.

Acclaimed sequels and Hollywood breakthrough: 1988–1998

In 1988 Chan starred alongside Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao for the last time to date, in the film ''Dragons Forever''. Hung co-directed with Corey Yuen, and the villain in the film was played by Yuen Wah, both of whom were fellow graduates of the China Drama Academy.

In the late 1980s and early 90s, Chan starred in a number of successful sequels beginning with ''Police Story 2'', which won the award for Best Action Choreography at the 1989 Hong Kong Film Awards. This was followed by ''Armour of God II: Operation Condor'', and ''Police Story 3: Super Cop'', for which Chan won the Best Actor Award at the 1993 Golden Horse Film Festival. In 1994, Chan reprised his role as Wong Fei-hung in ''Drunken Master II'', which was listed in ''Time Magazine's'' All-Time 100 Movies. Another sequel, ''Police Story 4: First Strike'', brought more awards and domestic box office success for Chan, but did not fare as well in foreign markets. Jackie Chan rekindled his Hollywood ambitions in the 1990s, but refused early offers to play villains in Hollywood films to avoid being typecast in future roles. For example, Sylvester Stallone offered him the role of Simon Phoenix, a criminal in the futuristic film ''Demolition Man''. Chan declined and the role was taken by Wesley Snipes.

Chan finally succeeded in establishing a foothold in the North American market in 1995 with a worldwide release of ''Rumble in the Bronx'', attaining a cult following in the United States that was rare for Hong Kong movie stars. The success of ''Rumble in the Bronx'' led to a 1996 release of ''Police Story 3: Super Cop'' in the United States under the title ''Supercop'', which grossed a total of US $16,270,600. Jackie's first huge blockbuster success came when he co-starred with Chris Tucker in the 1998 buddy cop action comedy ''Rush Hour'', grossing US$130 million in the United States alone. This film made a star of Jackie Chan, in Hollywood. As a publicity stunt, Jackie also wrote his autobiography in collaboration with Jeff Yang entitled ''I Am Jackie Chan''.

Fame in Hollywood and Dramatization: 1999–2007

In 1998, Chan released his final film for Golden Harvest, ''Who Am I?'' After leaving Golden Harvest in 1999, he produced and starred alongside Shu Qi in ''Gorgeous'' a romantic comedy that focused on personal relationships and featured only a few martial arts sequences. Chan then helped create a PlayStation game in 2000 called ''Jackie Chan Stuntmaster'', to which he lent his voice and performed the motion capture. He continued his Hollywood success in 2000 when he teamed up with Owen Wilson in the Western action comedy ''Shanghai Noon'' which was also a box office success and spawned the sequel ''Shanghai Knights'' (2003). He reunited with Chris Tucker for ''Rush Hour 2'' (2001) which was an even bigger success than the original and experimented with special effects with ''The Tuxedo'' (2002) and ''The Medallion'' (2003). Despite the success of these films Chan became frustrated with Hollywood over the limited range of roles and lack of control over the film-making process. In response to Golden Harvest's withdrawal from the film industry in 2003, Chan started his own film production company, JCE Movies Limited (Jackie Chan Emperor Movies Limited) in association with Emperor Multimedia Group (EMG). His films have since featured an increasing number of dramatic scenes while continuing to succeed at the box office; examples include ''New Police Story'' (2004), ''The Myth'' (2005) and the hit film ''Rob-B-Hood'' (2006).

Chan's next release was the third installment in the ''Rush Hour'' series: ''Rush Hour 3'' in August 2007. It grossed US$255 million. However, it was a disappointment in Hong Kong, grossing only HK$3.5 million during its opening weekend.

New experiments and change in style: 2008–present

As Chan had stated years before, there would be a point in his life in which he would have to be modernized and use special effects, and try new different things than martial arts flicks. This began in 2007, with the filming of ''The Forbidden Kingdom'' (released in 2008), Chan's first onscreen collaboration with fellow Chinese actor Jet Li, which was completed on 24 August 2007 and the film was released in April 2008. The film featured heavy use of effects and wires. Chan voiced the character Master Monkey in the DreamWorks Animation film, ''Kung Fu Panda'', released in June 2008, appearing with stars Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman and Angelina Jolie. In addition, he has assisted Anthony Szeto in an advisory capacity for the writer-director's film ''Wushu'', released on 1 May 2008. The film stars Sammo Hung and Wang Wenjie as father and son.

In November 2007, Chan began filming ''Shinjuku Incident'', a dramatic role featuring no martial arts sequences with director Derek Yee, which sees Chan take on the role of a Chinese immigrant in Japan. The film was released on 2 April 2009. According to his blog, Chan discussed his wishes to direct a film after completing ''Shinjuku Incident'', something he has not done for a number of years. The film is expected to be the third in the Armour of God series, and has a working title of ''Armour of God III: Chinese Zodiac''. Chan originally stated that he would start filming on 1 April 2008, but that date had passed and the current state of the film is unknown. Because the Screen Actors Guild did not go on strike, Chan started shooting his next Hollywood movie ''The Spy Next Door'' at the end of October in New Mexico. In ''The Spy Next Door'', Chan plays an undercover agent whose cover is blown when he looks after the children of his girlfriend. In ''Little Big Soldier'', Chan stars, alongside Leehom Wang in a non-martial arts comedy movie based on the Warring States Period.

On 22 June 2009, Chan left Los Angeles to begin filming ''The Karate Kid'', a remake of the 1984 original, in Beijing. The film was released in America on 11 June 2010 and sees Chan's first dramatic American film. In the film, he plays Mr. Han, a kung fu master and maintenance man who teaches Jaden Smith's character, Dre, kung-fu so he can defend himself from school bullies. In Chan's next movie, ''Shaolin'', he plays the cook of the temple instead of one of the major characters.

Jackie Chan's 100th film ''1911'' was released on 26 September 2011. He is the co-director, executive producer, and lead star of the movie. While Chan has directed over ten films over his career, this is his first directorial work in over ten years, since Jackie Chan's Who Am I? in 1998. 1911 premiered in North America on October 14.

Jackie Chan won the Favorite Buttkicker award at the Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards in 2011 for ''The Karate Kid''.

Stunts

Until recently, Jackie Chan performed all of his own stunts, which are choreographed by the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. He has stated in interviews that the primary inspiration for his more comedic stunts were films such as ''The General'' directed by and starring Buster Keaton, who was also known to perform his own stunts. Since its establishment in 1983, Chan has used the team in all his subsequent films to make choreographing easier, given his understanding of each member's abilities. Chan and his team undertake many of the stunts performed by other characters in his films, shooting the scenes so that their faces are obscured.

The dangerous nature of his stunts makes it difficult for Chan to get insurance, especially in the United States, where his stunt work is contractually limited. Chan holds the Guinness World Record for "Most Stunts By A Living Actor", which emphasizes "no insurance company will underwrite Chan's productions, in which he performs all his own stunts". In addition, he holds an unrecognised record for the most number of takes for a single shot in a film, having shot over 2900 retakes for a complex scene involving a Jianzi game in ''Dragon Lord''.

Chan has been injured numerous times attempting stunts; many of them have been shown as outtakes or as bloopers during the closing credits of his films. He came closest to death filming ''Armour of God'', when he fell from a tree and fractured his skull. Over the years, Chan has dislocated his pelvis and broken his fingers, toes, nose, both cheekbones, hips, sternum, neck, ankle and ribs on numerous occasions. Promotional materials for ''Rumble in the Bronx'' emphasized that Chan performed all of the stunts, and one version of the movie poster even diagrammed his many injuries.

Filmography and screen persona

Jackie Chan created his screen persona as a response to Bruce Lee, and the numerous imitators who appeared before and after Lee's death. In contrast to Lee's characters, who were typically stern, morally upright heroes, Chan plays well-meaning, slightly foolish regular guys (often at the mercy of their friends, girlfriends or families) who always triumph in the end despite the odds. Additionally, Chan has stated that he deliberately styles his movement to be the opposite of Lee's: where Lee held his arms wide, Chan holds his tight to the body; where Lee was loose and flowing, Chan is tight and choppy. Despite the success of the ''Rush Hour'' series, Chan has stated that he is not a fan of it since he neither appreciates the action scenes in the movie, nor understands American humour.

In recent years, the aging Chan grew tired of being typecast as an action hero, prompting him to act with more emotion in his latest films. In ''New Police Story'', he portrayed a character suffering from alcoholism and mourning his murdered colleagues. To further shed the image of Mr. Nice Guy, Chan played an anti-hero for the first time in ''Rob-B-Hood'' starring as Thongs, a burglar with gambling problems.

Television work

In 2000, Chan hosted a fictionalized version of himself in the animated series ''Jackie Chan Adventures'', which ran until 2005.

In July 2008, the BTV reality television series entitled ''The Disciple'' (, lit. "Disciple of the Dragon") concluded. The series was produced by, and featured Jackie Chan. The aim of the program was to find a new star, skilled in acting and martial arts, to become Chan's "successor" and student in filmmaking. Contestants were trained by Jackie Chan Stunt Team members Alan Wu and He Jun and competed in various fields, including explosion scenes, high-altitude wire-suspension, gunplay, car stunts, diving, obstacles courses etc. The regular judges on the program were He Ping, Wu Yue and Cheng Pei Pei. Guest judges include Stanley Tong, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. The "Finals" began on 5 April 2008, with 16 contestants remaining, and concluded on 26 June 2008. Amongst those in attendance were Tsui Hark, John Woo, Ng See Yuen and Yu Rongguang.

The winner of the series was Jack Tu (Tu Sheng Cheng). Along with runners up Yang Zheng and Jerry Liau, Tu is now set to star in three modern Chinese action films, one of which was scripted by Chan, and all three will be co-produced by Chan and his company JCE Movies Limited. The films will be entitled ''Speedpost 206'', ''Won't Tell You'' and ''Tropical Tornado'' and will be directed by Xie Dong, Jiang Tao and Cai Rong Hui. All 16 finalists will be given the opportunity to work on the films, or to join the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. Production on the first film is due to begin in September 2008. In addition, the finalists will be given roles in a forthcoming BTV action series.

Music career

Jackie Chan had vocal lessons whilst at the Peking Opera School in his childhood. He began producing records professionally in the 1980s and has gone on to become a successful singer in Hong Kong and Asia. He has released 20 albums since 1984 and has performed vocals in Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Taiwanese and English. He often sings the theme songs of his films, which play over the closing credits. Chan's first musical recording was "Kung Fu Fighting Man", the theme song played over the closing credits of ''The Young Master'' (1980). At least 10 of these recordings have been released on soundtrack albums for the films. His Cantonese song ''Story of a Hero'' (英雄故事) (theme song of ''Police Story'') was selected by the Royal Hong Kong Police and incorporated into their recruitment advertisement in 1994.

Chan voiced the character of Shang in the Chinese release of the Walt Disney animated feature, ''Mulan'' (1998). He also performed the song "I'll Make a Man Out of You", for the film's soundtrack. For the US release, the speaking voice was performed by B.D. Wong and the singing voice was done by Donny Osmond.

In 2007, Chan recorded and released the song "We Are Ready", the official one-year countdown song to the 2008 Summer Olympics. He performed the song at a ceremony marking the one-year countdown to the 2008 Summer Paralympics.

The day before the Beijing Olympics opened, Chan released one of the two official Olympics albums, ''Official Album for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games – Jackie Chan's Version'', which featured a number of special guest appearances. Chan, along with Andy Lau, Liu Huan and Wakin (Emil) Chau, performed "Hard to Say Goodbye", the farewell song for the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.

Image and celebrity status

Jackie Chan has received worldwide recognition for his acting, having won several awards including an Innovator Award from the American Choreography Awards and a lifetime achievement award from the Taurus World Stunt Awards. He has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars. Despite considerable box office success in The Northsouth Territories, Chan's American films have been criticised with regard to the action choreography. Reviewers of ''Rush Hour 2'', ''The Tuxedo'', and ''Shanghai Knights'' criticised the toning down of Chan's fighting scenes, citing less intensity compared to his earlier films. The comedic value of his films is questioned; some critics stated it can be childish at times.

Chan is a cultural icon, having been referenced in Ash's song "Kung Fu", Heavy Vegetable's "Jackie Chan Is a Punk Rocker", Leehom Wang's "Long Live Chinese People", as well as in "Jackie Chan" by Frank Chickens, and television shows ''Celebrity Deathmatch'' and ''Family Guy''. He has been the inspiration for manga such as ''Dragon Ball'' (including a character with the alias "Jackie Chun"), the character Lei Wulong in ''Tekken'' and the fighting-type Pokémon Hitmonchan. In addition, Jackie Chan has a sponsorship deal with Mitsubishi Motors. As a result, Mitsubishi cars can be found in a number of Jackie Chan films. Furthermore, Mitsubishi honoured Chan by launching Evolution, a limited series of cars which he personally customised.

A number of video games have featured Jackie Chan. Before ''Stuntmaster'', Chan already had a game of his own, ''Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu'', released in 1990 for the PC-Engine and NES. In 1995, Chan was featured in the arcade fighting game ''Jackie Chan The Kung-Fu Master''. In addition, a series of Japanese Jackie Chan games were released on the MSX by Pony, based on several of his films (''Project A'', ''Project A 2'', ''Police Story'', ''The Protector'' and ''Wheels On Meals'').

Chan has always wanted to be a role model to children, remaining popular with them due to his good-natured acting style. He has refused to play villains and has ''almost'' never used the word "fuck" in his films (He's only said that word in two films, ''The Protector'' and ''Burn, Hollywood, Burn''), but in ''Rush Hour'', in an attempt to be "cool" and imitate his partner Carter, who said "What's up, my nigga?" to a club of black men, he said the same thing when Carter was in another room and they all attacked him, so he had to pull out his fighting skills to beat them down and escape. Chan's greatest regret in life is not having received proper education, inspiring him to fund educational institutions around the world. He funded the construction of the Jackie Chan Science Centre at the Australian National University and the establishment of schools in poor regions of China.

Chan is a spokesperson for the Government of Hong Kong, appearing in public service announcements. In a ''Clean Hong Kong'' commercial, he urged the people of Hong Kong to be more considerate with regards to littering, a problem that has been widespread for decades. Furthermore, in an advertisement promoting nationalism, he gave a short explanation of the ''March of the Volunteers'', the national anthem of the People's Republic of China. When Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005, Chan participated in the opening ceremony. In the United States, Chan appeared alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in a government advert to combat copyright infringement and made another public service announcement with Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca to encourage people, especially Asians, to join the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Construction has begun on a Jackie Chan museum in Shanghai. Work began in July 2008, and although it was scheduled to be completed on October 2009, construction continues as of January 2010.

Controversies

During a news conference in Shanghai on 28 March 2004, Chan referred to the recently concluded Republic of China presidential election, 2004 in Taiwan, in which Democratic Progressive Party candidates Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu were re-elected as President and Vice-President as "the biggest joke in the world." Chan's comments were criticized by Parris Chang, a Taiwanese legislator and senior member of the DPP, who called for the government of Taiwan to take punitive steps against Chan for his comments, such as banning his movies and barring him the right to visit Taiwan. Some 50 police and security personnel were required to separate protesters from Chan, as they were attempting to spit at him when he arrived at Taipei airport for a charity sponsored by cable TV channel TVBS on 18 June 2008. Chan insisted that his remarks were not intended to insult the people of Taiwan.

Referring to his participation in the torch relay for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Chan spoke out against demonstrators who disrupted the relay several times attempting to draw attention to a wide-ranging number of grievances against the Chinese government, including China's human rights record and the political status of Taiwan. He warned that he would lash out against anyone planning to stop him from carrying the Olympic Torch, saying, "Demonstrators better not get anywhere near me." In addition, Chan felt that the protesters were publicity seekers. "They are doing it for no reason. They just want to show off on the TV," he said. "They know, 'if I can get the torch, I can go on the TV for the world news'." Chan felt the country was trying to improve and the Olympics is a chance for the country to open up and learn from the outside world and vice versa. "We are not right about everything. Things are getting better in China but we can change and are changing. We want to learn from the rest of the world as well as teach others about our ways and our culture."

On 18 April 2009, during a panel discussion at the annual Boao Forum for Asia titled "Tapping into Asia's Creative Industry Potential," Chan said "...in the 10 years after Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule, I can gradually see, I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not." Chan went on to say, "If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic." He also added, "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want." Chan however complained about the quality of Chinese goods, saying, "...a Chinese TV might explode." but refrained from criticizing the Chinese government for banning his 2009 film ''Shinjuku Incident''. Chan's comments prompted an angry response from some legislators and other prominent figures in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Hong Kong Legislator Leung Kwok-hung said that Chan "insulted the Chinese people. Chinese people aren't pets." The Hong Kong Tourism Board stated that it had received 164 comments and complaints from the public over Chan's remarks. A spokesman for Chan told reporters that the actor was referring to freedom in the entertainment industry rather than Chinese society at large and that certain people with "ulterior motives deliberately misinterpreted what he said."

On 24 August 2010, Jackie Chan tweeted about the botched rescue operation on the Manila hostage crisis that left 8 Hong Kong tourists dead. Although saddened by the news, he also tweeted "If they killed the guy sooner, they will say why not negotiate first? If they negotiate first, they ask why not kill the guy sooner?" Chan's comments caused outrage in Hong Kong. Several anti-Jackie Chan groups were set up on Facebook with tens of thousands of supporters. Some fellow actors and directors told local newspapers that they were also upset by his remarks. Chan reportedly has business interests in the Philippines. He issued a statement on 27 August 2010 apologizing for his comments and claiming that his assistant who helped him post the tweets had misunderstood the meaning of his original message.

Entrepreneurship and philanthropy

In addition to his film production and distribution company, JCE Movies Limited, Jackie Chan also owns or co-owns the production companies JC Group China, Jackie & Willie Productions (with Willie Chan) and Jackie & JJ Productions.

Chan has also put his name to Jackie Chan Theater International, a cinema chain in China, co-ran by Hong Kong company Sparkle Roll Group Ltd. The first—Jackie Chan-Yaolai International Cinema—opened in February 2010, and is claimed to be the largest cinema complex in China, with 17 screens and 3,500 seats. Chan expressed his hopes that the size of the venue would afford young, non-commercial directors the opportunity to have their films screened. 15 further cinemas in the chain are planned for 2010, throughout Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with a potential total of 65 cinemas throughout the country proposed.

In 2004, Chan launched his own line of clothing, which bears a Chinese dragon logo and the English word "Jackie", or the initials "JC". Chan also has a number of other branded businesses. His sushi restaurant chain, Jackie's Kitchen, has outlets throughout Hong Kong, as well as seven in South Korea and one in Hawaii, with plans to open another in Las Vegas. Jackie Chan's Cafe has outlets in Beijing, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and the Philippines. Other ventures include Jackie Chan Signature Club gyms (a partnership with California Fitness), and a line of chocolates, cookies and nutritional oatcakes. He also hopes to expand into furniture and kitchenware, and is also considering a branded supermarket. With each of his businesses, a percentage of the profits goes to various charities, including the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation.

Chan is a keen philanthropist and a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, having worked tirelessly to champion charitable works and causes. He has campaigned for conservation, against animal abuse and has promoted disaster relief efforts for floods in mainland China and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. In June 2006, he announced the donation of half his assets to charity upon his death, citing his admiration of the effort made by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to help those in need. On 10 March 2008, Chan was the guest of honour for the launch, by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, of the ''Jackie Chan Science Centre'' at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University in Canberra. Jackie Chan is also a supporter of the Save China's Tigers project which aims at saving the endangered South China Tiger through breeding and releasing them into the wild; he is currently an ambassador for this conservation project. Chan has many historic artifacts, such as old door frames from 2000 years ago. He also owns the Jinricksha Station in Singapore.

In April 2008, Jackie Chan was invited for the audio launch of an Indian film, entitled ''Dasavathaaram'' (2008) in Chennai (Madras), where he shared the dais with Indian celebrities, including Amitabh Bachchan, Mammootty and Kamal Hassan. Though he did not understand a word of Tamil, Chan was touched by the Indian community's love for him and his films, and was impressed with the movie ''Dasavathaaram'', expressing a keen interest in working with the star of the film, Kamal Hassan. Hassan himself reciprocated the desire to work with the action superstar, urging Chan to keep his promise of working with him on a possible film project.

Following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Chan donated RMB ¥10 million to help those in need. In addition, he is planning to make a film about the Chinese earthquake to raise money for survivors.

In response to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Jackie Chan and fellow Hong Kong-based celebrities, including American rapper Jin, headlined a special three-hour charity concert, titled ''Artistes 311 Love Beyond Borders'', on 1 April 2011 to help with Japan's disaster recovery effort, where Jackie Chan addressed the victims of the earthquake and tsunami by saying: ''"You will not be alone, we will be by your side"''. The concert raised over $3.3 million dollars in just three hours for disaster relief.

Chan also holds guest lectures at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art of Fudan University, Shanghai.

The Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation

Founded in 1988, the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation offers scholarships and active help to Hong Kong's young people through a variety of worthy causes. Over the years, the foundation has broadened its scope to include provision of medical services, aid to victims of natural disaster or illness, and projects where the major beneficiaries are Hong Kong people or organizations. Major donation projects of The Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation:

The Jackie Chan Gymnasium at Lingnan University

The Jackie Chan Challenge Cup Intercollegiate Invitation Tournament

The Jackie Chan Family Unit, Hong Kong Girl Guides Association Jockey Club Beas River Lodge

The Jackie Chan Whole Person Development Center

Renovation of the Bethanie Site, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

Medical Funding in Mainland China (Operation Smile)

Medical Donation in Hong Kong (Queen Mary Hospital, SARS Relief)

Support for the Performing Arts

Youth Development Programs

The Dragon's Heart Foundation

The Dragon's Heart Foundation was founded in 2005 to fulfill the desperate needs of children and the elderly in remote areas of China. Since 2005, the Dragon's Heart Foundation has built over a dozen schools, provided books, fees, and uniforms, and has raised millions of dollars to give much-needed educational opportunities for the poor. In addition, the Dragon's Heart Foundation provides for the elderly with donations of warm clothing, wheelchairs, and other items. Jackie often travels to the remote locations to attend groundbreakings or school openings, and to lend support and encouragement.

Awards and nominations

Hong Kong Film Awards

Best Action Choreography Nomination for ''Dragon Lord''

Best Actor Nomination for ''Project A''

Best Actor Nomination for ''Heart of Dragon''

Best Actor Nomination for ''Police Story''

Best Director Nomination for ''Police Story''

Best Film for ''Rouge''

Best Actor Nomination for ''Mr Canton and Lady Rose''

Best Actor Nomination for ''Police Story 3: Super Cop''

Best Actor Nomination for ''Crime Story''

Best Action Choreography Nomination for ''Crime Story''

Best Actor Nomination for ''Rumble in the Bronx''

Best Action Choreography for ''Rumble in the Bronx''

Best Actor Nomination for ''Police Story 4: First Strike''

Best Actor Nomination for ''Who Am I?''

'''Best Action Choreography for ''Who Am I?''

Best Action Choreography Nomination for ''Gorgeous''

Best Actor Nomination for ''New Police Story''

Professional Spirit Award

Best Film Nomination for ''The Myth''

Best Action Choreography Nomination for ''The Myth''

Best Original Film Song Nomination for ''The Myth''

Best Action Choreography Nomination for ''Rob-B-Hood''

Best Film Nomination for ''Shinjuku Incident''

(10 Best Actor Nominations, 7 Best Action Choreography Nominations, 3 Film Nominations, 1 Best Director Nomination, 1 Best Original Film Song Nomination)

Personal life

In 1982, Jackie Chan married Lin Feng-Jiao (aka Joan Lin), a Taiwanese actress. That same year, the two had a son, singer and actor Jaycee Chan. Elaine Ng Yi-Lei had a daughter, Etta, in 1999, and claimed Chan was the father; Chan admitted the affair, but did not formally acknowledge her as his daughter. Chan is a Buddhist.

He speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, and English fluently, and also speaks some German, Korean and Japanese, as well as a little Spanish.

In 2009, Chan received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambodia.

See also

Cinema of Hong Kong

Hong Kong action cinema

Cinema of China

Stunt

Stunt performer

References

Further reading

Boose, Thorsten; Oettel, Silke. ''Hongkong, meine Liebe – Ein spezieller Reiseführer''. Shaker Media, 2009. ISBN 978-3-86858-255-0 Boose, Thorsten. ''Der deutsche Jackie Chan Filmführer''. Shaker Media, 2008. ISBN 978-3-86858-102-7

Chan, Jackie, and Jeff Yang. ''I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action''. New York: Ballantine Books, 1999. ISBN 0-345-42913-3. Jackie Chan's autobiography.

Cooper, Richard, and Mike Leeder. ''100% Jackie Chan: The Essential Companion''. London: Titan Books, 2002. ISBN 1-84023-491-1.

Cooper, Richard. ''More 100% Jackie Chan: The Essential Companion Volume 2''. London: Titan Books, 2004. ISBN 1-84023-888-7.

Corcoran, John. ''The Unauthorized Jackie Chan Encyclopedia: From Project A to Shanghai Noon and Beyond''. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2003. ISBN 0-07-138899-0.

Fox, Dan. ''Jackie Chan. Raintree Freestyle''. Chicago, Ill.: Raintree, 2006. ISBN 1-4109-1659-6.

Gentry, Clyde. ''Jackie Chan: Inside the Dragon''. Dallas, Tex.: Taylor Pub, 1997. ISBN 0-87833-962-0.

Le Blanc, Michelle, and Colin Odell. ''The Pocket Essential Jackie Chan''. Pocket essentials. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials, 2000. ISBN 1-903047-10-2.

Major, Wade. ''Jackie Chan''. New York: Metrobooks, 1999. ISBN 1-56799-863-1.

Moser, Leo. ''Made in Hong Kong: die Filme von Jackie Chan''. Berlin: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, 2000. ISBN 3-89602-312-8.

Poolos, Jamie. ''Jackie Chan''. Martial Arts Masters. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2002. ISBN 0-8239-3518-3.

Rovin, Jeff, and Kathleen Tracy. ''The Essential Jackie Chan Sourcebook''. New York: Pocket Books, 1997. ISBN 0-671-00843-9.

Stone, Amy. ''Jackie Chan''. Today's Superstars: Entertainment. Milwaukee, Wis.: Gareth Stevens Pub, 2007. ISBN 0-8368-7648-2.

Witterstaetter, Renee. ''Dying for Action: The Life and Films of Jackie Chan''. New York: Warner, 1998. ISBN 0-446-67296-3.

Wong, Curtis F., and John R. Little (eds.). ''Jackie Chan and the Superstars of Martial Arts''. The Best of ''Inside Kung-Fu''. Lincolnwood, Ill.: McGraw-Hill, 1998. ISBN 0-8092-2837-8.

External links

Jackie Chan at Rotten Tomatoes

Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:Best Action Choreographer HKFA Category:Cantopop singers Category:Chinese martial artists Category:Chinese film actors Category:Chinese comedians Category:Hong Kong comedians Category:Hong Kong Buddhists Category:Hong Kong voice actors Category:Hong Kong film actors Category:Hong Kong film directors Category:Hong Kong film producers Category:Hong Kong screenwriters Category:Hong Kong singers Category:Hong Kong male singers Category:Hong Kong Mandopop singers Category:Hong Kong kung fu practitioners Category:Hong Kong wushu practitioners Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:Stunt actors Category:Stunt performers

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name	Michael Penn
background	solo_singer
born	August 01, 1958Greenwich Village, New York City, US
instrument	Guitar, piano, bass, vocals
occupation	Singer-songwriter, composer, musician,
years active	1990–present
label	RCA, Sony, Mimeograph
associated acts	Doll Congress
website	www.michaelpenn.com
notable instruments	}}

Michael Penn (born August 1, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter and composer. He is the eldest son of actor/director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, and the brother of actors Sean Penn and the late Chris Penn.

Career

Michael Penn is a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter and film composer. Prior to the release of his 1989 debut album ''March'', Penn was a member of the Los Angeles band Doll Congress, and had appeared as an extra on a few television series, including ''St. Elsewhere''.

''March'', particularly the first single, "No Myth," brought Penn attention, as well as the 1990 MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist. Penn's follow-up albums ''Free-for-All'' (1992), ''Resigned'' (1997) ''MP4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident'' (2000 ) ''Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947'' (2005) and ''Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea'' (2007) weren't able to match the commercial success of ''March'', although critics continued to praise his songcraft.

It was with ''Free-for-All'' that Penn faced the specter of the one-hit wonder. The album, while praised by critics, was not as successful as Penn's debut, though it had more than its share of supporters. ''Rolling Stone'' called it "stunning" and ''CMJ'' wrote that the album "exhausts any doubts" about whether ''March'' was a fluke.

In ''Vox'' magazine, critic Gary Leboff acknowledged that Penn could be "pig-headedly uncommercial," but, he conceded, "the payoff is sublime". Leboff continues, "His freeform songwriting creates tracks of startling shape and originality, offering literate reflections on the human condition..."

Penn collaborated with the renowned surrealist animators The Brothers Quay on "Long Way Down (Look What The Cat Drug In)," which found a home not on MTV but in film festivals around the country, winning awards along the way.

He has worked extensively creating original music for film; among his first work in this field (if not the first) was for 1993's ''Tales From the Vienna Woods''. He scored two movies released by Paul Thomas Anderson in 1997, ''Hard Eight'' and ''Boogie Nights''; he also appears in the latter in a cameo role playing Nick, a recording engineer. During the editing of the film, Anderson directed a music video with Penn for "Try" from ''Resigned'' (the video can be found on the ''Boogie Nights'' DVD). Other films scored by Penn include Alan Cumming's first two directorial efforts, ''The Anniversary Party'' and ''Suffering Man's Charity''; ''American Teen'', ''Sunshine Cleaning''; the documentary ''The Comedians of Comedy''; and ''The Last Kiss''. In 2003, he was nominated for a DVDX Award for Best Original Score in a DVD Premiere Movie for ''Melvin Goes to Dinner''.

In August 2005, Penn released ''Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947'' on his own Mimeograph Records label. Its songs are set against the background of post-World War II Los Angeles; Penn said he chose the year because of several notable events that took place then, including the passage of the National Security Act and the invention of the transistor. The album was reissued by Legacy Recordings in April 2007 with bonus tracks from a KCRW session.

The reissue came in conjunction with Legacy's release of ''Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea: A Michael Penn Collection'', a compilation that includes several alternate versions and previously unreleased songs. Penn said his goal in compiling, ordering tracks for and producing ''Palms and Runes'' was to "make it feel like an album" in its own right.

In late 2009, Penn composed the music for the film ''That Evening Sun''.

Personal life

Penn met fellow singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, and during the recording of her album ''I'm With Stupid'' (to which Penn contributed), the two struck up a friendship, which blossomed into romance and their December 29, 1997 marriage. Together with manager Michael Hausman they formed United Musicians, an anti-file-sharing, pro-strict-copyright-law organization also interested in helping artists with the promotion and distribution of their work. Penn and Mann live in Los Angeles. Penn has a son, Liam, from a previous marriage.

Discography

Solo albums

''March'' (1989)

''Free-For-All'' (1992)

''Resigned'' (1997)

''MP4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident'' (2000)

''Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947'' (independent release) (2005)

''Cinemascope'' (2005)

''Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea: A Michael Penn Collection'' (2007)

''Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947'' (Legacy reissue) (2007)

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions	Album
Billboard Hot 100>Hot 100	Modern Rock Tracks chart>Modern Rock	UK Singles Chart>UK
1989	"No Myth"
	"This & That"
"Brave New World"
	"Long Way Down (Look What the Cat Drug In)"
"Seen the Doctor"
	"Try"
"Me Around"
"Out Of My Hands"
	"Lucky One"

With Gabriele Morgan and Doll Congress/Doll Congress

''Buried Treasure'' (5-song EP) (1981)

''Doll Congress'' 12" (1983)

"Give Up Your Ghost" (sung by Morgan) and "I Will Be Around" (sung by Penn) appear on the soundtrack to ''Welcome to 18'' (1986)

Appearances

"Retribution" (guitar solo) on Randell Kirsch, LuAnn Olson and Chris Hickey's Show Of Hands (I.R.S. 1989)

"Body and Soul?" (backing vocals) on Thelonious Monster's ''Beautiful Mess'' (1992)

"It's Not Safe" (guitar, solo guitar) on Aimee Mann's ''I'm With Stupid'' (1995)

"Christmastime", with Aimee Mann on ''Just Say Noel'' (1996)

"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", with Mark Mothersbaugh on The Moog Cookbook's ''Ye Olde Space Bande'' (1997)

"Macy Day Parade" on ''Godzilla: The Album'' (1998)

"Reason to Believe", with Aimee Mann on ''Badlands: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska'' (2000)

"Wise Up" (Produced) on Aimee Mann's ''Bachelor No. 2'' (2000)

"How Am I Different", "Susan" (backing vocals) on Aimee Mann's ''Bachelor No. 2'' (2000)

"Red Vines" (slide guitar) on Aimee Mann's ''Bachelor No. 2'' (2000)

"Satellite" (guitar feedback, backing vocals) on Aimee Mann's ''Bachelor No. 2'' (2000)

"Driving Sideways" (electric guitar, backing vocals) on Aimee Mann's ''Bachelor No. 2'' (2000)

"Susan" (guitar), on Aimee Mann's ''Bachelor No. 2'' (2000)

Co-produced The Wallflowers' ''(Breach)'' (2000)

"Two of Us", with Aimee Mann on ''I Am Sam'' (2001)

"It's Sweet", "Little Digger" (produced, recorded by, guitar, bass) on Liz Phair's self-titled fourth album (2003)

"Red Light Fever", "Take A Look", "Friend Of Mine" (produced, recorded by, guitar) on ''Liz Phair'' (2003)

Film Scores

''Tales From The Vienna Woods'' (1993)

''Hard Eight'' (originally titled ''Sydney''), with Jon Brion (1996)

''Boogie Nights'' (1997)

''The Anniversary Party'' (2001)

''Melvin Goes to Dinner'' (2003)

''The Comedians of Comedy'' (2005)

''The Last Kiss'' (2006)

''Suffering Man's Charity'' (2007)

''American Teen'' (2008)

''Sunshine Cleaning'' (2008)

''That Evening Sun'' (2009)

''Bollywood Hero'' (2009)

''Solitary Man'' (2010)

Acting

St. Elsewhere (playing a lab technician, as an extra) (1985)

''Boogie Nights'' (Nick, an engineer) (1997)

References

External links

Michael Penn.com official site

Bunker Hill fan site

United Musicians

MySpace page

Discogs page

Category:1958 births Category:American film score composers Category:American male singers Category:American record producers Category:American rock bass guitarists Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:American rock guitarists Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Living people Category:Musicians from California Category:People from Los Angeles County, California Category:American alternative rock musicians

de:Michael Penn fr:Michael Penn nl:Michael Penn pt:Michael Penn sv:Michael Penn

Birthname	Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger
Order	38th
Office	Governor of California
Lieutenant	Cruz BustamanteMona Pasquil (acting) John GaramendiAbel Maldonado
Term start	November 17, 2003
Term end	January 3, 2011
Predecessor	Gray Davis
Successor	Jerry Brown
Birth date	July 30, 1947
Birth place	Thal, Austria
Citizenship	American, Austrian
Party	Republican Party
Spouse	Maria Shriver (1986–2011)
Children	Katherine (b. 1989)Christina (b. 1991)Patrick (b. 1993)Christopher (b. 1997)Joseph Baena (b. 1997)
Relations	Gustav Schwarzenegger(father, deceased)Aurelia née Jadrny(mother, deceased)
Alma mater	Santa Monica CollegeUniversity of Wisconsin, Superior
Profession	Bodybuilder, actor, director, businessman, investor, and politician
Religion	Roman Catholic
Signature	Arnold Schwarzenegger Signature.svg
Website	Personal website
Branch	Austrian Armed Forces
Serviceyears	1965 }}

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, director, businessman, investor, and politician who served as the 38th Governor of California (2003–11).

Schwarzenegger began to weight train at the young age of 15 years old. He was awarded the title of Mr. Universe at age 20 and went on to win the Mr. Olympia contest seven times. Schwarzenegger has remained a prominent presence in the sport of bodybuilding and he has written several books and numerous articles on the sport. Schwarzenegger gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action film icon. He was nicknamed the "Austrian Oak" and the "Styrian Oak" in his bodybuilding days, "Arnie" during his acting career and more recently the "Governator" (a portmanteau of "Governor" and "Terminator").

As a Republican, he was first elected on October 7, 2003, in a special recall election to replace then-Governor Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger was sworn in on November 17, 2003, to serve the remainder of Davis's term. Schwarzenegger was then re-elected on November 7, 2006, in California's 2006 gubernatorial election, to serve a full term as governor, defeating Democrat Phil Angelides, who was California State Treasurer at the time. Schwarzenegger was sworn in for his second term on January 5, 2007.

Schwarzenegger had been married to Maria Shriver for over 25 years and the couple had four children together. In 2011, it was revealed that Schwarzenegger had engaged in an adulterous affair and fathered a son with an employee of his, Mildred Baena, 14 years earlier. This subsequently led to Schwarzenegger and Shriver separating and Shriver filing for divorce.

Early life

Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria, a small village bordering the Styrian capital Graz, and was christened Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger. His parents were the local police chief, Gustav Schwarzenegger (1907–72), and Aurelia (née Jadrny; 1922–1998). His father served in World War II, after he voluntarily applied to join the Nazi Party in 1938. He served with the German Army as a Hauptfeldwebel of the Feldgendarmerie and was discharged in 1943 after contracting malaria. They were married on October 20, 1945 – Gustav was 38, and Aurelia was a 23-year-old widow with a son, Meinhard. According to Schwarzenegger, both of his parents were very strict: "Back then in Austria it was a very different world, if we did something bad or we disobeyed our parents, the rod was not spared." He grew up in a Roman Catholic family who attended mass every Sunday.

Gustav had a preference for his stepson Meinhard, over his son, Arnold. His favoritism was "strong and blatant," which stemmed from unfounded suspicion that Arnold was not his child. Schwarzenegger has said his father had "no patience for listening or understanding your problems." Schwarzenegger had a good relationship with his mother and kept in touch with her until her death. In later life, Schwarzenegger commissioned the Simon Wiesenthal Center to research his father's wartime record, which came up with no evidence of atrocities despite Gustav's membership in the Nazi Party and SA. Schwarzenneger's father's background received wide press attention during the 2003 California recall campaign. At school, Schwarzenegger was apparently in the middle but stood out for his "cheerful, good-humored and exuberant" character. Money was a problem in their household; Schwarzenegger recalled that one of the highlights of his youth was when the family bought a refrigerator.

As a boy, Schwarzenegger played several sports, heavily influenced by his father. He picked up his first barbell in 1960, when his football coach took his team to a local gym. At the age of 14, he chose bodybuilding over football (soccer) as a career. Schwarzenegger has responded to a question asking if he was 13 when he started weightlifting: "I actually started weight training when I was 15, but I'd been participating in sports, like soccer, for years, so I felt that although I was slim, I was well-developed, at least enough so that I could start going to the gym and start Olympic lifting." However, his official website biography claims: "At 14, he started an intensive training program with Dan Farmer, studied psychology at 15 (to learn more about the power of mind over body) and at 17, officially started his competitive career." During a speech in 2001, he said, ''"My own plan formed when I was 14 years old. My father had wanted me to be a police officer like he was. My mother wanted me to go to trade school."'' Schwarzenegger took to visiting a gym in Graz, where he also frequented the local movie theaters to see bodybuilding idols such as Reg Park, Steve Reeves and Johnny Weissmuller on the big screen. "I was inspired by individuals like Reg Park and Steve Reeves." When Reeves died in 2000, Schwarzenegger fondly remembered him: "As a teenager, I grew up with Steve Reeves. His remarkable accomplishments allowed me a sense of what was possible, when others around me didn't always understand my dreams ... Steve Reeves has been part of everything I've ever been fortunate enough to achieve." In 1961, Schwarzenegger met former Mr. Austria Kurt Marnul, who invited him to train at the gym in Graz. He was so dedicated as a youngster that he broke into the local gym on weekends, when it was usually closed, so that he could train. "It would make me sick to miss a workout ... I knew I couldn't look at myself in the mirror the next morning if I didn't do it." When Schwarzenegger was asked about his first movie experience as a boy, he replied, "I was very young, but I remember my father taking me to the Austrian theaters and seeing some newsreels. The first real movie I saw, that I distinctly remember, was a John Wayne movie."

In 1971, his brother Meinhard died in a car accident. Meinhard had been drinking and was killed instantly. Schwarzenegger did not attend his funeral. Meinhard was due to marry Erika Knapp, and the couple had a three-year-old son, Patrick. Schwarzenegger would pay for Patrick's education and help him to immigrate to the United States. Gustav died the following year from a stroke. In ''Pumping Iron'', Schwarzenegger claimed that he did not attend his father's funeral because he was training for a bodybuilding contest. Later, he and the film's producer said this story was taken from another bodybuilder for the purpose of showing the extremes that some would go to for their sport and to make Schwarzenegger's image more cold and machine-like in order to fan controversy for the film. Barbara Baker, his first serious girlfriend, has said he informed her of his father's death without emotion and that he never spoke of his brother. Over time, he has given at least three versions of why he was absent from his father's funeral.

In an interview with ''Fortune'' in 2004, Schwarzenegger told how he suffered what "would now be called child abuse" at the hands of his father:

Early adulthood

Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian Army in 1965 to fulfill the one year of service required at the time of all 18-year-old Austrian males. During his army service, he won the Junior Mr. Europe contest. He went AWOL during basic training so he could take part in the competition and spent a week in military prison: "Participating in the competition meant so much to me that I didn't carefully think through the consequences." He won another bodybuilding contest in Graz, at Steirer Hof Hotel (where he had placed second). He was voted best built man of Europe, which made him famous.

"The Mr. Universe title was my ticket to America – the land of opportunity, where I could become a star and get rich." Schwarzenegger made his first plane trip in 1966, attending the NABBA Mr. Universe competition in London. He would come in second in the Mr. Universe competition, not having the muscle definition of American winner Chester Yorton.

Charles "Wag" Bennett, one of the judges at the 1966 competition, was impressed with Schwarzenegger and he offered to coach him. As Schwarzenegger had little money, Bennett invited him to stay in his crowded family home above one of his two gyms in Forest Gate, London, England. Yorton's leg definition had been judged superior, and Schwarzenegger, under a training program devised by Bennett, concentrated on improving the muscle definition and power in his legs. Staying in the East End of London helped Schwarzenegger improve his rudimentary grasp of the English language. Also in 1966, Schwarzenegger had the opportunity to meet childhood idol Reg Park, who became his friend and mentor. The training paid off and, in 1967, Schwarzenegger won the title for the first time, becoming the youngest ever Mr. Universe at the age of 20. He would go on to win the title a further three times. Schwarzenegger then flew back to Munich, training for four to six hours daily, attending business school and working in a health club (Rolf Putzinger's gym where he worked and trained from 1966–1968), returning in 1968 to London to win his next Mr. Universe title. He frequently told Roger C. Field, a friend in Munich at that time, "I'm going to become the greatest actor!"

Move to the U.S.

Schwarzenegger, who dreamed of moving to the U.S. since the age of 10, and saw bodybuilding as the avenue through which to do so, realized his dream by moving to the United States in September 1968 at the age of 21, speaking little English. "Naturally, when I came to this country, my accent was very bad, and my accent was also very strong, which was an obstacle as I began to pursue acting." There he trained at Gold's Gym in Venice, Los Angeles, California, under Joe Weider. From 1970 to 1974, one of Schwarzenegger's weight training partners was Ric Drasin, a professional wrestler who designed the original Gold's Gym logo in 1973. Schwarzenegger also became good friends with professional wrestler "Superstar" Billy Graham. In 1970, at age 23, he captured his first Mr. Olympia title in New York, and would go on to win the title a total of seven times.

Immigration law firm Siskind & Susser have stated that Schwarzenegger may have been an illegal immigrant at some point in the late 1960s or early 1970s because of violations in the terms of his visa. ''LA Weekly'' would later say in 2002 that Schwarzenegger is the most famous immigrant in America, who "overcame a thick Austrian accent and transcended the unlikely background of bodybuilding to become the biggest movie star in the world in the 1990s".

In 1977, Schwarzenegger's autobiography/weight-training guide ''Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder'' was published and became a huge success. After taking English classes at Santa Monica College in California, he earned a BA by correspondence from the University of Wisconsin–Superior, where he graduated Business and International Economics, in 1979.

Bodybuilding career

Name	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Nickname	The Austrian Oak
Birth date	July 30, 1947
Birth place	Thal, Styria, Austria
Height
Weight	250 pounds (113 kg)
Firstproshow	NABBA Mr. Universe
Firstproshowyear	1968
Bestwin	IFBB Mr. Olympia
Bestwinyear	1970–1975, 1980, Seven Times
Predecessor	Sergio Oliva ('69), Frank Zane ('79)
Successor	Franco Columbu ('76, '81)
Yesorretiredyear	Retired 1980 }}

Schwarzenegger is considered among the most important figures in the history of bodybuilding, and his legacy is commemorated in the Arnold Classic annual bodybuilding competition. Schwarzenegger has remained a prominent face in the bodybuilding sport long after his retirement, in part because of his ownership of gyms and fitness magazines. He has presided over numerous contests and awards shows.

For many years, he wrote a monthly column for the bodybuilding magazines ''Muscle & Fitness'' and ''Flex''. Shortly after being elected Governor, he was appointed executive editor of both magazines, in a largely symbolic capacity. The magazines agreed to donate $250,000 a year to the Governor's various physical fitness initiatives. The magazine ''MuscleMag International'' has a monthly two-page article on him, and refers to him as "The King".

One of the first competitions he won was the Junior Mr. Europe contest in 1965. He won Mr. Europe the following year, at age 19. He would go on to compete in, and win, many bodybuilding contests, as well as some weightlifting contests, including five Mr. Universe (4 – NABBA [England], 1 – IFBB [USA]) wins, and seven Mr. Olympia wins, a record which would stand until Lee Haney won his eighth consecutive Mr. Olympia title in 1991.

Schwarzenegger continues to work out even today. When asked about his personal training during the 2011 Arnold Classic he said that he was still working out a half an hour with weights every day.

Competition Weight: (top 250 lb [113 kg])

Off Season Weight:

Strongman

In 1967, Schwarzenegger competed in and won the Munich stone-lifting contest, in which a stone weighing 508 German pounds (254 kg/560 lbs.) is lifted between the legs while standing on two foot rests.

Mr. Olympia

Schwarzenegger's goal was to become the greatest bodybuilder in the world, which meant becoming Mr. Olympia. His first attempt was in 1969, when he lost to three-time champion Sergio Oliva. However, Schwarzenegger came back in 1970 and won the competition, making him the youngest ever Mr. Olympia at the age of 23, a record he holds to this day.

He continued his winning streak in the 1971–74 competitions. In 1975, Schwarzenegger was once again in top form, and won the title for the sixth consecutive time, beating Franco Columbu. After the 1975 Mr. Olympia contest, Schwarzenegger announced his retirement from professional bodybuilding.

Months before the 1975 Mr. Olympia contest, filmmakers George Butler and Robert Fiore persuaded Schwarzenegger to compete, in order to film his training in the bodybuilding documentary called ''Pumping Iron.'' Schwarzenegger had only three months to prepare for the competition, after losing significant weight to appear in the film ''Stay Hungry'' with Jeff Bridges. Lou Ferrigno proved not to be a threat, and a lighter-than-usual Schwarzenegger convincingly won the 1975 Mr. Olympia.

Schwarzenegger came out of retirement, however, to compete in the 1980 Mr. Olympia. Schwarzenegger was training for his role in ''Conan'', and he got into such good shape because of the running, horseback riding and sword training, that he decided he wanted to win the Mr. Olympia contest one last time. He kept this plan a secret, in the event that a training accident would prevent his entry and cause him to lose face. Schwarzenegger had been hired to provide color commentary for network television, when he announced at the eleventh hour that while he was there: "Why not compete?" Schwarzenegger ended up winning the event with only seven weeks of preparation. After being declared Mr. Olympia for a seventh time, Schwarzenegger then officially retired from competition.

Steroid use

Schwarzenegger has admitted to using performance-enhancing anabolic steroids while they were legal, writing in 1977 that "steroids were helpful to me in maintaining muscle size while on a strict diet in preparation for a contest. I did not use them for muscle growth, but rather for muscle maintenance when cutting up." He has called the drugs "tissue building."

In 1999, Schwarzenegger sued Dr. Willi Heepe, a German doctor who publicly predicted his early death on the basis of a link between his steroid use and his later heart problems. As the doctor had never examined him personally, Schwarzenegger collected a US$10,000 libel judgment against him in a German court. In 1999, Schwarzenegger also sued and settled with ''The Globe'', a U.S. tabloid which had made similar predictions about the bodybuilder's future health.

Height

His official height of 6'2" (1.88 m) has been brought into question by several articles. In his bodybuilding days in the late 1960s, he was measured to be 6'1.5" (1.87 m), a height confirmed by his fellow bodybuilders. However, in 1988 both the ''Daily Mail'' and ''Time Out'' magazine mentioned that Schwarzenegger appeared noticeably shorter. More recently, before running for Governor, Schwarzenegger's height was once again questioned in an article by the ''Chicago Reader''. As Governor, Schwarzenegger engaged in a light-hearted exchange with Assemblyman Herb Wesson over their heights. At one point Wesson made an unsuccessful attempt to, in his own words, ''"[s]ettle this once and for all and find out how tall he is"'' by using a tailor's tape measure on the Governor. Schwarzenegger retaliated by placing a pillow stitched with the words "Need a lift?" on the five-foot-five inch (165 cm) Wesson's chair before a negotiating session in his office. Bob Mulholland also claimed Arnold was 5'10" (1.78 m) and that he wore risers in his boots. The debate on Schwarzenegger's height has spawned a website solely dedicated to the issue, and his page remains one of the most active on CelebHeights.com, a website which discusses the heights of celebrities.

Acting career

Other names	Arnold StrongArnie
Years active	1970–2006, 2009–present (acting)
Occupation	Actor, director, producer }}

Schwarzenegger wanted to move from bodybuilding into acting, finally achieving it when he was chosen to play the role of Hercules in 1970's ''Hercules in New York''. Credited under the name "Arnold Strong," his accent in the film was so thick that his lines were dubbed after production. His second film appearance was as a deaf mute hit-man for the mob in director Robert Altman's ''The Long Goodbye'' (1973), which was followed by a much more significant part in the film ''Stay Hungry'' (1976), for which he was awarded a Golden Globe for New Male Star of the Year. Schwarzenegger has discussed his early struggles in developing his acting career. "It was very difficult for me in the beginning – I was told by agents and casting people that my body was 'too weird', that I had a funny accent, and that my name was too long. You name it, and they told me I had to change it. Basically, everywhere I turned, I was told that I had no chance."

Schwarzenegger drew attention and boosted his profile in the bodybuilding film ''Pumping Iron'' (1977), elements of which were dramatized. In 1991, Schwarzenegger purchased the rights to the film, its outtakes, and associated still photography. Schwarzenegger auditioned for the title role of ''The Incredible Hulk'', but did not win the role because of his height. Later, Lou Ferrigno got the part of Dr. David Banner's alter ego. Schwarzenegger appeared with Kirk Douglas and Ann-Margret in the 1979 comedy ''The Villain''. In 1980 he starred in a biographical film of the 1950s actress Jayne Mansfield as Mansfield's husband, Mickey Hargitay.

Schwarzenegger's breakthrough film was the sword-and-sorcery epic ''Conan the Barbarian'' in 1982, which was a box-office hit. This was followed by a sequel, ''Conan the Destroyer'' in 1984, although it was not as successful as its predecessor. In 1983, Schwarzenegger starred in the promotional video "Carnival in Rio".

In 1984, he made the first of three appearances as the eponymous character and what some would say was the signature role in his acting career in director James Cameron's science fiction thriller film ''The Terminator''. Following ''The Terminator'', Schwarzenegger made ''Red Sonja'' in 1985.

During the 1980s, audiences had an appetite for action films, with both Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone becoming international stars. Schwarzenegger's roles reflected his sense of humor, separating his roles from more serious action hero fare. His alternative-universe comedy/thriller ''Last Action Hero'' featured a poster of the movie ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' which, in the fictional alternate universe, had Sylvester Stallone as its star.

He made a number of successful films: ''Commando'' (1985), ''Raw Deal'' (1986), ''The Running Man'' (1987), and ''Red Heat'' (1988). In ''Predator'' (1987), another successful film, Schwarzenegger led a cast which included future Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura (Ventura also appeared in ''The Running Man'' and ''Batman & Robin'' with Schwarzenegger) and future candidate for governor of Kentucky Sonny Landham.

''Twins'' (1988), a comedy with Danny DeVito also proved successful. ''Total Recall'' (1990) netted Schwarzenegger $10 million and 15% of the gross, and was a science fiction script directed by Paul Verhoeven, based on the Philip K. Dick short story, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". ''Kindergarten Cop'' (1990) reunited him with director Ivan Reitman, who directed him in ''Twins''.

Schwarzenegger had a brief foray into directing, first with a 1990 episode of the TV series ''Tales from the Crypt'', entitled "The Switch", and then with the 1992 telemovie ''Christmas in Connecticut''. He has not directed since.

Schwarzenegger's commercial peak was his return as the title character in 1991's ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'', which was the highest-grossing film of 1991. In 1993, the National Association of Theatre Owners named him the "International Star of the Decade." His next film project, the 1993 self-aware action comedy spoof ''Last Action Hero'' was released opposite ''Jurassic Park'', and did not do well at the box office. His next film, the comedy drama ''True Lies'' (1994) was a popular spy film, and saw Schwarzenegger, reunited with James Cameron, appearing opposite Jamie Lee Curtis.

That same year the comedy ''Junior'' (1994) was released, the last of his three collaborations with Ivan Reitman and again co-starring Danny DeVito and also for the second time featuring Pamela Reed. This film brought Schwarzenegger his second Golden Globe nomination, this time for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy. It was followed by the action thriller ''Eraser'' (1996), the Christmas comedy ''Jingle All The Way'' (1996) with Arnold playing the main character, Howard Langston, and the comic book-based ''Batman & Robin'' (1997), where he played the villain Mr. Freeze. This was his final film before taking time to recuperate from a back injury. Following the critical failure of ''Batman & Robin'', Schwarzenegger's film career and box office prominence went into decline.

He returned with the supernatural thriller ''''End of Days'''' (1999), later followed by the action films ''The 6th Day'' (2000) and ''Collateral Damage'' (2002) all of which failed to do well at the box office. In 2003, he made his third appearance as the title character in ''Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines'', which went on to earn over $150 million domestically.

In tribute to Schwarzenegger in 2002, Forum Stadtpark, a local cultural association, proposed plans to build a 25-meter (82 ft) tall ''Terminator'' statue in a park in central Graz. Schwarzenegger reportedly said he was flattered, but thought the money would be better spent on social projects and the Special Olympics.

His film appearances after becoming Governor of California include a 3-second cameo appearance in ''The Rundown'' (a.k.a., ''Welcome to the Jungle'') with The Rock, and the 2004 remake of ''Around the World in 80 Days'', where he appeared onscreen with action star Jackie Chan for the first time. In 2005 he appeared as himself in the film ''The Kid & I''. Schwarzenegger voiced Baron von Steuben in Episode 24 ("Valley Forge") of ''Liberty's Kids''.

Schwarzenegger had been rumored to be appearing in ''Terminator Salvation'' as the original T-800 model, alongside Roland Kickinger. Schwarzenegger denied his involvement, but it was later revealed that although he would appear briefly he would not be shooting new footage, and his image would be inserted into the movie from stock footage of the first Terminator movie. Schwarzenegger's most recent appearance was in Sylvester Stallone's ''The Expendables'', where he made a cameo appearance alongside Stallone and Bruce Willis.

Return to acting

In January 2011, just weeks after leaving office in California, Schwarzenegger announced that he was reading several new scripts for future films, one of them being the World War II action drama ''With Wings as Eagles'', written by Randall Wallace, based on a true story.

On March 6, 2011, at the Arnold Seminar of the Arnold Classic, Schwarzenegger revealed that he was being courted for several films, including sequels to ''The Terminator'' and remakes of ''Predator'' and ''The Running Man'', and that he was "packaging" a comic book character. The character was later revealed to be the Governator, star of the comic book and animated series of the same name. Schwarzenegger inspired the character and co-developed it with Stan Lee, who would have produced the series. Schwarzenegger would have voiced the Governator.

On May 20, 2011, Schwarzenegger's entertainment counsel announced that all movie projects currently in development were being halted. "Governor Schwarzenegger is focusing on personal matters and is not willing to commit to any production schedules or timelines." However, the ''Daily Star'' reported on May 29 that Schwarzenegger had been offered $40 million to star in two ''Terminator'' films.

On July 11, 2011 it was announced that Schwarzenegger is considering a comeback film despite his continuing legal problems. He has reportedly signed to star in "Last Stand" as a dishonored Los Angeles cop.

Political career

Early politics

Schwarzenegger has been a registered Republican for many years. As an actor, his political views were always well known as they contrasted with those of many other prominent Hollywood stars, who are generally considered to be a liberal and Democratic-leaning community. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, Schwarzenegger gave a speech and explained why he was a Republican:

In 1985, Schwarzenegger appeared in ''Stop the Madness'', an anti-drug music video sponsored by the Reagan administration. He first came to wide public notice as a Republican during the 1988 Presidential election, accompanying then-Vice President George H.W. Bush at a campaign rally.

Schwarzenegger's first political appointment was as chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, on which he served from 1990 to 1993. He was nominated by George H. W. Bush, who dubbed him "Conan the Republican". He later served as Chairman for the California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under Governor Pete Wilson. Yet, political analysts have identified Schwarzenegger as a liberal, as he has become more left-leaning since his election.

Between 1993 and 1994, Schwarzenegger was a Red Cross ambassador (a ceremonial role fulfilled by celebrities), recording several television/radio public service announcements to donate blood. A small amount of interest was garnered by his wearing of a white t-shirt with the Red Cross on it, while posing with a flexed arm; the image made it into several celebrity magazines.

In an interview with ''Talk'' magazine in late 1999, Schwarzenegger was asked if he thought of running for office. He replied, "I think about it many times. The possibility is there, because I feel it inside." ''The Hollywood Reporter'' claimed shortly after that Schwarzenegger sought to end speculation that he might run for governor of California. Following his initial comments, Schwarzenegger said, "I'm in show business – I am in the middle of my career. Why would I go away from that and jump into something else?"

Governor of California

Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy in the 2003 California recall election for Governor of California on the August 6, 2003 episode of ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno''. As a candidate in the recall election, Schwarzenegger had the most name recognition in a crowded field of candidates, but he had never held public office and his political views were unknown to most Californians. His candidacy immediately became national and international news, with media outlets dubbing him the "Governator" (referring to ''The Terminator'' movies, see above) and "The Running Man" (the name of another one of his films), and calling the recall election "Total Recall" (yet another Schwarzenegger starrer). Schwarzenegger declined to participate in several debates with other recall replacement candidates, and appeared in only one debate on September 24, 2003.

On October 7, 2003, the recall election resulted in Governor Gray Davis being removed from office with 55.4% of the ''Yes'' vote in favor of a recall. Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California under the second question on the ballot with 48.6% of the vote to choose a successor to Davis. Schwarzenegger defeated Democrat Cruz Bustamante, fellow Republican Tom McClintock, and others. His nearest rival, Bustamante, received 31% of the vote. In total, Schwarzenegger won the election by about 1.3 million votes. Under the regulations of the California Constitution, no runoff election was required. Schwarzenegger was the first foreign-born governor of California since Irish-born Governor John G. Downey in 1862.

As soon as Schwarzenegger was elected governor, Willie Brown said he would start a drive to recall the governor. Schwarzenegger was equally entrenched in what he considered to be his mandate in cleaning up gridlock. Building on a catchphrase from the sketch "Hans and Franz" from ''Saturday Night Live'' (which partly parodied his bodybuilding career), Schwarzenegger called the Democratic State politicians "girlie men".

Schwarzenegger's early victories included repealing an unpopular increase in the vehicle registration fee as well as preventing driver's licenses being given out to illegal immigrants, but later he began to feel the backlash when powerful state unions began to oppose his various initiatives. Key among his reckoning with political realities was a special election he called in November 2005, in which four ballot measures he sponsored were defeated. Schwarzenegger accepted personal responsibility for the defeats and vowed to continue to seek consensus for the people of California. He would later comment that "no one could win if the opposition raised 160 million dollars to defeat you".

Schwarzenegger then went against the advice of fellow Republican strategists and appointed a Democrat, Susan Kennedy, as his Chief of Staff. Schwarzenegger gradually moved towards a more politically moderate position, determined to build a winning legacy with only a short time to go until the next gubernatorial election.

Schwarzenegger ran for re-election against Democrat Phil Angelides, the California State Treasurer, in the 2006 elections, held on November 7, 2006. Despite a poor year nationally for the Republican party, Schwarzenegger won re-election with 56.0% of the vote compared with 38.9% for Angelides, a margin of well over one million votes. In recent years, many commentators have seen Schwarzenegger as moving away from the right and towards the center of the political spectrum. After hearing a speech by Schwarzenegger at the 2006 Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom said that, "[H]e's becoming a Democrat [... H]e's running back, not even to the center. I would say center-left".

It was rumored that Schwarzenegger might run for the United States Senate in 2010, as his governorship would be term-limited by that time. This turned out to be false. Wendy Leigh, who wrote an unofficial biography on Schwarzenegger, claims he plotted his political rise from an early age using the movie business and bodybuilding as building blocks to escape a depressing home. Leigh portrays Schwarzenegger as obsessed with power and quotes him as saying, "I wanted to be part of the small percentage of people who were leaders, not the large mass of followers. I think it is because I saw leaders use 100% of their potential –I was always fascinated by people in control of other people." Schwarzenegger has said that it was never his intention to enter politics, but he says, "I married into a political family. You get together with them and you hear about policy, about reaching out to help people. I was exposed to the idea of being a public servant and Eunice and Sargent Shriver became my heroes." Eunice Kennedy Shriver was sister of John F. Kennedy, and mother-in-law to Schwarzenegger; Sargent Shriver is husband to Eunice and father-in-law to Schwarzenegger. He cannot run for president as he is not a natural born citizen of the United States. In ''The Simpsons Movie'' (2007), he is portrayed as the President, and in the Sylvester Stallone movie, ''Demolition Man'' (1993, ten years before his first run for political office), it is revealed that a constitutional amendment passed which allowed Schwarzenegger to run for President.

Schwarzenegger is a dual Austria/United States citizen. He holds Austrian citizenship by birth and has held U.S. citizenship since becoming naturalized in 1983. Being Austrian and thus European, he was able to win the 2007 European Voice campaigner of the year award for taking action against climate change with the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 and plans to introduce an emissions trading scheme with other US states and possibly with the EU. Still, Schwarzenegger has always identified with his American citizenship, and has shown great affinity for the state of California beyond his foreign birth.

Because of his personal wealth from his acting career, Schwarzenegger did not accept his governor's salary of $175,000 per year. He stated after he left office that being governor cost him as much as $200 million in potential movie deals, but that "it was more than worth it."

Schwarzenegger's endorsement in the Republican primary of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election was highly sought; despite being good friends with candidates Rudy Giuliani and Senator John McCain, Schwarzenegger remained neutral throughout 2007 and early 2008. Giuliani dropped out of the Presidential race on January 30, 2008, largely because of a poor showing in Florida, and endorsed McCain. Later that night, Schwarzenegger was in the audience at a Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. The following day, he endorsed McCain, joking, "It's Rudy's fault!" (in reference to his friendships with both candidates and that he could not make up his mind). Schwarzenegger's endorsement was thought to be a boost for Senator McCain's campaign; both spoke about their concerns for the environment and economy.

In its April 2010 report, Progressive ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington named Schwarzenegger one of 11 "worst governors" in the United States because of various ethics issues throughout Schwarzenegger's term as governor.

Governor Schwarzenegger played a significant role in opposing Proposition 66, a proposed amendment of the Californian Three Strikes Law, in November 2004. This amendment would have required the third felony to be either violent or serious to mandate a 25-years-to-life sentence. In the last week before the ballot, Schwarzenegger launched an intensive campaign against Proposition 66. He stated that "it would release 26,000 dangerous criminals and rapists".

Allegations of sexual and personal misconduct

During his initial campaign for governor, allegations of sexual and personal misconduct were raised against Schwarzenegger, dubbed "Gropegate". Within the last five days before the election, news reports appeared in the ''Los Angeles Times'' recounting allegations of sexual misconduct from several individual women, six of whom eventually came forward with their personal stories.

Three of the women claimed he had grabbed their breasts, a fourth said he placed his hand under her skirt on her buttock. A fifth woman claimed Schwarzenegger tried to take off her bathing suit in a hotel elevator, and the last said he pulled her onto his lap and asked her about a sex act.

Schwarzenegger admitted that he has "behaved badly sometimes" and apologized, but also stated that "a lot of [what] you see in the stories is not true". This came after an interview in adult magazine ''Oui'' from 1977 surfaced, in which Schwarzenegger discussed attending sexual orgies and using substances such as marijuana. Schwarzenegger is shown smoking a marijuana joint after winning Mr. Olympia in the 1975 documentary film ''Pumping Iron.'' In an interview with ''GQ'' magazine in October 2007, Schwarzenegger said, "[Marijuana] is not a drug. It's a leaf. My drug was pumping iron, trust me." His spokesperson later said the comment was meant to be a joke.

British television personality Anna Richardson settled a libel lawsuit in August 2006 against Schwarzenegger, his top aide, Sean Walsh, and his publicist, Sheryl Main. A joint statement read: "The parties are content to put this matter behind them and are pleased that this legal dispute has now been settled." Richardson claimed they tried to tarnish her reputation by dismissing her allegations that Schwarzenegger touched her breast during a press event for ''The 6th Day'' in London. She claimed Walsh and Main libeled her in a ''Los Angeles Times'' article when they contended she encouraged his behavior.

Citizenship

In 2005, Peter Pilz, from the Austrian Green Party, demanded that parliament revoke Schwarzenegger's Austrian citizenship. This demand was based on Article 33 of the Austrian Citizenship Act that states: ''A citizen, who is in the public service of a foreign country, shall be deprived of his citizenship, if he heavily damages the reputation or the interests of the Austrian Republic''. Pilz claimed that Schwarzenegger's actions in support of the death penalty (prohibited in Austria under Protocol 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights) had indeed done damage to Austria's reputation. Schwarzenegger explained his actions by referring to the fact that his only duty as Governor of California was to prevent an error in the judicial system.

Environmental record

On September 27, 2006 Schwarzenegger signed a bill creating the nation's first cap on greenhouse gas emissions. The law set new regulations on the amount of emissions utilities, refineries and manufacturing plants are allowed to release into the atmosphere. Schwarzenegger also signed a second global warming bill that prohibits large utilities and corporations in California from making long-term contracts with suppliers who do not meet the state's greenhouse gas emission standards. The two bills are part of a plan to reduce California's emissions by 25 percent to 1990s levels by 2020. In 2005, Schwarzenegger issued an executive order calling to reduce greenhouse gases to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Schwarzenegger signed another executive order on October 17, 2006 allowing California to work with the Northeast's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. They plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by issuing a limited amount of carbon credits to each power plant in participating states. Any power plants that exceed emissions for the amount of carbon credits will have to purchase more credits to cover the difference. The plan is set to be in effect in 2009. In addition to using his political power to fight global warming, the governor has taken steps at his home to reduce his personal carbon footprint. Schwarzenegger has adapted one of his Hummers to run on hydrogen and another to run on biofuels. He has also installed solar panels to heat his home.

In respect of his contribution to the direction of the US motor industry, Schwarzenegger was invited to open the 2009 SAE World Congress in Detroit, on April 20, 2009.

Electoral history

Business career

Schwarzenegger has also had a highly successful business career. Following his move to the United States, Schwarzenegger became a "prolific goal setter" and would write his objectives at the start of the year on index cards, like starting a mail order business or buying a new car – and succeed in doing so. By the age of 30, Schwarzenegger was a millionaire, well before his career in Hollywood. His financial independence came from a series of successful business ventures and investments.

Bricklaying business

In 1968, Schwarzenegger and fellow bodybuilder Franco Columbu started a bricklaying business. The business flourished thanks to the pair's marketing savvy and an increased demand following the 1971 San Fernando earthquake. Schwarzenegger and Columbu used profits from their bricklaying venture to start a mail order business, selling bodybuilding and fitness-related equipment and instructional tapes.

Real estate investing

Schwarzenegger rolled profits from the mail order business and his bodybuilding competition winnings into his first real estate investment venture: an apartment building he purchased for $10,000. He would go on to invest in a number of real estate holding companies.

Restaurant

In 1992, Schwarzenegger and his wife opened a restaurant in Santa Monica called ''Schatzi On Main''. ''Schatzi'' literally means "little treasure," colloquial for "honey" or "darling" in German. In 1998, he sold his restaurant.

Planet Hollywood investment

Schwarzenegger was a founding celebrity investor in the Planet Hollywood chain of international theme restaurants (modeled after the Hard Rock Cafe) along with Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Demi Moore. Schwarzenegger severed his financial ties with the business in early 2000. Schwarzenegger said the company had not had the success he had hoped for, claiming he wanted to focus his attention on "new US global business ventures" and his movie career.

Other ventures and investments

He also invested in a shopping mall in Columbus, Ohio. He has talked about some of those who have helped him over the years in business: "I couldn't have learned about business without a parade of teachers guiding me... from Milton Friedman to Donald Trump... and now, Les Wexner and Warren Buffett. I even learned a thing or two from Planet Hollywood, such as when to get out! And I did!" He has significant ownership in Dimensional Fund Advisors, an investment firm.

Personal life

Early love life

In 1969, Schwarzenegger met Barbara Outland (later Barbara Outland Baker), an English teacher he lived with until 1974. Schwarzenegger talked about Barbara in his memoir in 1977: "Basically it came down to this: she was a well-balanced woman who wanted an ordinary, solid life, and I was not a well-balanced man, and hated the very idea of ordinary life." Baker has described Schwarzenegger as "[a] joyful personality, totally charismatic, adventurous, and athletic" but claims towards the end of the relationship he became "insufferable – classically conceited – the world revolved around him". Baker published her memoir in 2006, entitled ''Arnold and Me: In the Shadow of the Austrian Oak''. Although Baker, at times, painted an unflattering portrait of her former lover, Schwarzenegger actually contributed to the tell-all book with a foreword, and also met with Baker for three hours. Baker claims, for example, that she only learned of his being unfaithful after they split, and talks of a turbulent and passionate love life. Schwarzenegger has made it clear that their respective recollection of events can differ. The couple first met six to eight months after his arrival in the U.S. – their first date was watching the first Apollo Moon landing on television. They shared an apartment in Santa Monica for three and a half years, and having little money, would visit the beach all day, or have barbecues in the back yard. Although Baker claims that when she first met him, he had "little understanding of polite society" and she found him a turn-off, she says, "He's as much a self-made man as it's possible to be –he never got encouragement from his parents, his family, his brother. He just had this huge determination to prove himself, and that was very attractive ... I'll go to my grave knowing Arnold loved me."

Schwarzenegger met his next paramour, Sue Moray, a Beverly Hills hairdresser's assistant, on Venice Beach in July 1977. According to Moray, the couple led an open relationship: "We were faithful when we were both in LA ... but when he was out of town, we were free to do whatever we wanted." Schwarzenegger met Maria Shriver at the Robert F. Kennedy Tennis Tournament in August 1977, and went on to have a relationship with both women until August 1978, when Moray (who knew of his relationship with Shriver) issued an ultimatum.

After the news of Schwarzenegger's infidelity scandal was revealed, actress Brigitte Nielsen came forward and confessed that she too had an affair with Schwarzenegger while he was in a relationship with Shriver, saying, "Maybe I wouldn't have got into it if he said 'I'm going to marry Maria' and this is dead serious, but he didn't, and our affair carried on."

Marriage and family

On April 26, 1986, Schwarzenegger married television journalist Maria Shriver, niece of President John F. Kennedy, in Hyannis, Massachusetts. The Rev. John Baptist Riordan performed the ceremony at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church. They have four children: Katherine Eunice Shriver Schwarzenegger (born December 13, 1989 in Los Angeles); Christina Maria Aurelia Schwarzenegger (born July 23, 1991 in Los Angeles); Patrick Schwarzenegger (born September 18, 1993 in Los Angeles); and Christopher Sargent Shriver Schwarzenegger (born September 27, 1997 in Los Angeles). Schwarzenegger lives in a home in Brentwood. The divorcing couple currently own vacation homes in Sun Valley, Idaho and Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. They attended St. Monica's Catholic Church.

Son in serious accident

Schwarzenegger's 13-year-old son Christopher Schwarzenegger was seriously injured in a boogie-boarding accident in Malibu, on July 17, 2011. In a joint statement, Schwarzenegger and estranged wife Shriver described it as "scary," and that "he is expected to make a full recovery." Christopher had been in intensive care after suffering a collapsed lung and broken bones in the accident.

Infidelity and divorce

On May 9, 2011, Shriver and Schwarzenegger separated after 25 years of marriage, with Shriver moving out of the couple's Brentwood mansion. On May 16, 2011, the ''Los Angeles Times'' revealed that Schwarzenegger had fathered a son more than fourteen years earlier with an employee in their household, Mildred Patricia 'Patty' Baena. "After leaving the governor's office I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago," Schwarzenegger said in a statement issued to ''The Times''. In the statement, Schwarzenegger did not mention that he had confessed to his wife only after Shriver had confronted him with the information, which she had done after confirming with the housekeeper what she had suspected about the child.

Fifty-year-old Baena, of Guatemalan origin, was employed by the family for 20 years and retired in January. The pregnant Baena was working in the home while Shriver was pregnant with the youngest of the couple’s four children. Baena's son with Schwarzenegger, Joseph, was born on October 2, 1997; Shriver gave birth to Christopher only a few days earlier on September 27, 1997. Schwarzenegger found ways to spend time with this child: in one instance, in 1998, Shriver and Schwarzenegger's children unexpectedly accompanied Schwarzenegger to the lovechild's baptism; and he was photographed teaching the boy how to play golf and swinging him playfully above his head. Despite Schwarzenegger's interactions with the child, the boy was never told that Schwarzenegger was his father, and he was unaware of the fact until it was revealed by the press. Schwarzenegger has taken financial responsibility for the child "from the start and continued to provide support." KNX 1070 radio reported that he bought a new, four-bedroom house, with a pool, in Bakersfield, about north of Los Angeles, in 2010 for Baena and their son. Baena separated from her husband, Rogelio, in 1997, a few months after Joseph's birth. She divorced Rogelio in 2008. Baena's ex-husband, Rogelio Baena, says that the child's birth certificate was falsified and that he plans to sue Schwarzenegger and his ex-wife for engaging in conspiracy to falsify a public document, a serious crime in California.

Schwarzenegger has consulted an attorney, Bob Kaufman. Kaufman has earlier handled divorce cases for celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Schwarzenegger will keep the Brentwood home as part of their divorce settlement and Shriver has purchased a new home nearby so that the children may travel easily between their parents' homes. They will share custody of the two minor children. Schwarzenegger came under fire after the initial petition did not include spousal support and a reimbursement of attorney's fees. However, he claims this was not intentional and that he signed the initial documents without having properly read them. Schwarzenegger has filed amended divorce papers remedying this.

In the aftermath of Schwarzenegger's infidelity scandal, actress Brigitte Nielsen came forward and stated that she too had an affair with Schwarzenegger while he was in a relationship with Shriver, saying, "Maybe I wouldn't have got into it if he said 'I'm going to marry Maria' and this is dead serious, but he didn't, and our affair carried on."

Accidents and injuries

Schwarzenegger was born with a bicuspid aortic valve, an aortic valve with only two leaflets (a normal aortic valve has three leaflets). Schwarzenegger opted in 1997 for a replacement heart valve made of his own transplanted tissue; medical experts predicted he would require heart valve replacement surgery in the following two to eight years as his valve would progressively degrade. Schwarzenegger apparently opted against a mechanical valve, the only permanent solution available at the time of his surgery, because it would have sharply limited his physical activity and capacity to exercise.

On December 9, 2001, he broke six ribs and was hospitalized for four days after a motorcycle crash in Los Angeles.

Schwarzenegger saved a drowning man's life in 2004 while on vacation in Hawaii by swimming out and bringing him back to shore.

On January 8, 2006, while Schwarzenegger was riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle in Los Angeles, with his son Patrick in the sidecar, another driver backed into the street he was riding on, causing him and his son to collide with the car at a low speed. While his son and the other driver were unharmed, the governor sustained a minor injury to his lip, requiring 15 stitches. "No citations were issued", said Officer Jason Lee, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. Schwarzenegger did not obtain his motorcycle license until July 3, 2006.

Schwarzenegger tripped over his ski pole and broke his right femur while skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho, with his family on December 23, 2006. On December 26, 2006, he underwent a 90-minute operation in which cables and screws were used to wire the broken bone back together. He was released from the St. John's Health Center on December 30, 2006. He appeared in crutches at his inauguration.

Schwarzenegger's private jet made an emergency landing at Van Nuys Airport on June 19, 2009, after the pilot reported smoke coming from the cockpit, according to a statement released by the governor's press secretary. No one was harmed in the incident.

Net worth

Schwarzenegger's net worth has been conservatively estimated at $100–$200 million. Over the years, he invested his bodybuilding and movie earnings in an array of stocks, bonds, privately controlled companies and real estate holdings worldwide, so a more accurate estimation of his net worth is difficult to calculate, particularly in light of declining real estate values owing to economic recessions in the USA and Europe. In June 1997, Schwarzenegger spent $38 million of his own money on a private Gulfstream Jet. Schwarzenegger once said of his fortune, "Money doesn't make you happy. I now have $50 million, but I was just as happy when I had $48 million." He has also stated, "I've made many millions as a businessman many times over."

Activism

He bought the first Hummer manufactured for civilian use in 1992, a model so large, and wide, that it is classified as a large truck and U.S. fuel economy regulations do not apply to it. During the Gubernatorial Recall campaign he announced that he would convert one of his Hummers to burn hydrogen. The conversion was reported to have cost about US$21,000. After the election, he signed an executive order to jump-start the building of hydrogen refueling plants called the California Hydrogen Highway Network, and gained a U.S. Department of Energy grant to help pay for its projected US$91,000,000 cost. California took delivery of the first H2H (Hydrogen Hummer) in October 2004.

On February 12, 2010, Schwarzenegger was the 18th runner on the 106th day of the Vancouver Olympic Torch relay. His leg was along the Stanley Park Seawall, and he exchanged a "torch kiss" with the next runner, Sebastian Coe.

Honors

Schwarzenegger's home town of Graz had its soccer stadium named ''The Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium'' in his honor. It is the home of both Grazer AK and Sturm Graz. After the Stanley Williams execution and street protests in Schwarzenegger's hometown, several local politicians began a campaign to remove his name from the stadium. In response, Schwarzenegger said "to spare the responsible politicians of the city of Graz further concern, I withdraw from them as of this day the right to use my name in association with the Liebenau Stadium", and set a deadline of two days to remove his name. Graz officials removed Schwarzenegger's name from the stadium in December 2005. It is now officially titled UPC-Arena.

The Sun Valley Resort has a short ski trail called ''Arnold's Run'', named after Schwarzenegger in 2001. The trail is categorized as a black diamond, or most difficult, for its terrain.

People in Thal, Austria, celebrated Schwarzenegger's 60th birthday by throwing a party. Officials proclaimed "A Day for Arnold" on July 30, 2007. The mayor sent Schwarzenegger the enameled sign, Thal 145, the number of the house where Schwarzenegger was born, declaring "This belongs to him. No one here will ever be assigned that number again".

Bibliography

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Interviews

Interview in ''Oui'' magazine, August 1977 at thesmokinggun.com

Excerpts from ''Time Out'' (London) interview, 1977 at time.com

Schwarzenegger Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

Film

Footage of Arnold Schwarzenegger winning Mr Universe, 1969

"Arnold Schwarzenegger – Hollywood Hero" DVD ~ Todd Baker

"Pumping Iron" (25th Anniversary Special Edition) DVD ~ George Butler

References

External links

Arnold Schwarzenegger ''official website''

Office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ''official California government site''

Arnold Schwarzenegger ''official constituency site''

Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum ''official museum site''

Arnold Schwarzenegger: Wild Years – slideshow by ''Life magazine''

Complete text, audio, video of Governor Schwarzenegger's 2004 Republican National Convention Address AmericanRhetoric.com

Complete text and audio of Governor Schwarzenegger's Speech to the United Nations on Global Climate Change AmericanRhetoric.com, September 24, 2007

Archive of Correspondence pertaining to Governor Schwarzenegger and same-sex marriage AB 43 Project

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name	Milton Friedman
school tradition	Chicago School of Economics
color	maroon
birth date	July 31, 1912
birth place	Brooklyn, New York
death date	November 16, 2006
death place	San Francisco, California
nationality	American
institution	Hoover Institution (1977–2006)University of Chicago (1946–77)Columbia University (1937–41, 1943–45, 1964–65)NBER (1937–40)
field	Economics
alma mater	Columbia University (Ph.D.), 1946, University of Chicago (M.A.), 1933 Rutgers University (B.A.), (1932)| influences Adam Smith, Irving Fisher, Frank Knight, Murray Rothbard, Jacob Viner, Harold Hotelling, Arthur Burns, Friedrich Hayek, Homer Jones, Ludwig von Mises, Henry Simons, George Stigler
opposed	John Maynard Keynes, John Kenneth Galbraith, Murray Rothbard
influenced	David D. Friedman, Anna J. Schwartz, Ben Bernanke, Gary Becker, Thomas Sowell, Harry Markowitz, Chicago Boys, William F. Buckley, Jr., Cato Institute
contributions	Price theory, Monetarism, applied macroeconomics, floating exchange rates, volunteer military, Permanent income hypothesis, Friedman test
awards	John Bates Clark Medal (1951)Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (1976)Presidential Medal of Freedom (1988)National Medal of Science (1988)
signature	}}

Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades. He was a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Among scholars, he is best known for his theoretical and empirical research, especially consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy. He was an economic advisor to U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Over time, many governments practiced his restatement of a political philosophy that extolled the virtues of a free market economic system with little intervention by government. As a leader of the Chicago school of economics, based at the University of Chicago, he had great influence in determining the research agenda of the entire profession. Milton Friedman's works, which include many monographs, books, scholarly articles, papers, magazine columns, television programs, videos, and lectures, cover a broad range of topics of microeconomics, macroeconomics, economic history, and public policy issues. ''The Economist'' described him as "the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century…possibly of all of it."

Friedman was originally a Keynesian, a supporter of the New Deal and an advocate of government intervention in the economy. However, his 1950s reinterpretation of the Keynesian consumption function challenged the standard Keynesian model of that time. At the University of Chicago, Friedman became the main advocate opposing activist Keynesian government policies. During the 1960s he promoted an alternative macroeconomic policy known as "monetarism". He theorized there existed a "natural" rate of unemployment, and argued that governments could not change this natural rate by varying aggregate demand. (Among macroeconomists, the "natural" rate has been increasingly replaced by James Tobin's NAIRU, the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment, which is seen as having fewer normative connotations.) He argued that the Phillips Curve was not stable, and predicted that then-existing Keynesian policies would cause high inflation and minimal growth (later termed stagflation). Friedman's claim that monetary policy could have prevented the Great Depression was an attempt to refute the analysis of Keynes, who argued that monetary policy is ineffective during depression conditions, and that large-scale deficit spending by the government is needed to decrease mass unemployment. Though opposed to the existence of the Federal Reserve, Friedman argued that, given that it does exist, a steady, small expansion of the money supply was the only wise policy, and he warned against efforts by a treasury or central bank to do otherwise.

Influenced by his close friend George Stigler, Friedman opposed government regulation of many types. He once stated that his role in eliminating U.S. conscription was his proudest accomplishment, and his support for school choice led him to found The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. Friedman's political philosophy, which he considered classically liberal and libertarian, emphasized the advantages of free market economics and the disadvantages of government intervention and regulation, strongly influencing the opinions of American conservatives and libertarians. In his 1962 book ''Capitalism and Freedom'', Friedman advocated policies such as a volunteer military, freely floating exchange rates, abolition of medical licenses, a negative income tax, and education vouchers. His books and essays were well read and were even circulated illegally in Communist countries.

Most economists during the 1960s rejected Friedman's economic views, but since then they have had an increasing international influence. Some of his laissez-faire ideas concerning monetary policy, taxation, privatization and deregulation were used by governments, especially during the 1980s. A combination of his monetary theory in regard to credit and Keynes's belief in deficit spending to stimulate growth has influenced economists such as Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve's response to the financial crisis of 2007–10.

Early life

Friedman was born in Brooklyn, New York, to recent Jewish immigrants Jenő Friedman and Sára Landau from Beregszász in Hungary (now Berehove, part of Ukraine), both of whom worked as dry goods merchants. Shortly after Milton's birth, the family relocated to Rahway, New Jersey. A talented student, Friedman graduated from Rahway High School in 1928, just before his 16th birthday.

Friedman graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he specialized in mathematics and initially intended to become an actuary. During his time at Rutgers, Friedman became influenced by two economics professors, Arthur F. Burns and Homer Jones, who convinced him that modern economics could help end the Great Depression. Friedman did graduate work at the University of Chicago, earning an M.A. in 1933. He was strongly influenced by Jacob Viner, Frank Knight, and Henry Simons. It was at Chicago that Friedman met his future wife, economist Rose Director. During 1933–34 he had a fellowship at Columbia University, where he studied statistics with renowned statistician and economist Harold Hotelling. He was back in Chicago for 1934–35, spending the year working as a research assistant for Henry Schultz, who was then working on ''Theory and Measurement of Demand''. That year, Friedman formed what would prove to be lifelong friendships with George Stigler and W. Allen Wallis.

Public service

Friedman was initially unable to find academic employment, so during 1935, he followed his friend W. Allen Wallis to Washington, where Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal was "a lifesaver" for many young economists. At this stage, Friedman said that he and his wife "regarded the job-creation programs such as the WPA, CCC, and PWA appropriate responses to the critical situation," but not "the price- and wage-fixing measures of the National Recovery Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration." Foreshadowing his later ideas, he believed price controls interfered with an essential signaling mechanism to help resources be used where they were most valued. Indeed, Friedman later concluded that all government intervention associated with the New Deal was "the wrong cure for the wrong disease," arguing that the money supply should simply have been expanded, instead of contracted. In the publication ''Monetary History of the United States'' by Friedman and Anna Schwartz, they argue that the Great Depression was caused by monetary contraction, which was the consequence of poor policymaking by the Federal reserve and the continuous crises of the banking system.

During 1935, he began work for the National Resources Committee, which was then working on a large consumer budget survey. Ideas from this project later became a part of his ''Theory of the Consumption Function''. Friedman began employment with the National Bureau of Economic Research during autumn 1937 to assist Simon Kuznets in his work on professional income. This work resulted in their jointly authored publication ''Incomes from Independent Professional Practice'', which introduced the concepts of permanent and transitory income, a major component of the Permanent Income Hypothesis that Friedman worked out in greater detail in the 1950s. The book hypothesizes that professional licensing artificially restricts the supply of services and raises prices.

During 1940, Friedman was appointed an assistant professor teaching Economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, but encountered antisemitism in the Economics department and decided to return to government service. Friedman spent 1941–43 working on wartime tax policy for the Federal Government, as an advisor to senior officials of the United States Department of the Treasury. As a Treasury spokesman during 1942 he advocated a Keynesian policy of taxation, and during this time he helped to invent the payroll withholding tax system. He later said in an interview, "I have no apologies for it, but I really wish we hadn't found it necessary and I wish there were some way of abolishing withholding now." As Friedman grew older he reversed himself; during 2006 he observed, "You know, it's a mystery as to why people think Roosevelt's policies pulled us out of the Depression. The problem was that you had unemployed machines and unemployed people. How do you get them together by forming industrial cartels and keeping prices and wages up?"

Academic career

Early years

During 1943, Friedman joined the Division of War Research at Columbia University (headed by W. Allen Wallis and Harold Hotelling), where he spent the rest of the war years working as a mathematical statistician, focusing on problems of weapons design, military tactics, and metallurgical experiments. Then during 1945, Friedman submitted ''Incomes from Independent Professional Practice'' (co-authored with Kuznets and completed during 1940) to Columbia as his doctoral dissertation. The university awarded him a Ph.D. during 1946. Friedman spent the 1945–46 academic year teaching at the University of Minnesota (where his friend George Stigler was employed). On February 12, 1945, his son, David D. Friedman was born.

University of Chicago

During 1946, Friedman accepted an offer to teach economic theory at the University of Chicago (a position opened by departure of his former professor Jacob Viner to Princeton University). Friedman would work for the University of Chicago for the next 30 years. There he helped build an intellectual community that produced a number of Nobel Prize winners, known collectively as the Chicago School of Economics.

At that time, Arthur Burns, who was then the head of the National Bureau of Economic Research, asked Friedman to rejoin the Bureau's staff. He accepted the invitation, and assumed responsibility for the Bureau's inquiry into the role of money in the business cycle. As a result, he initiated the "Workshop in Money and Banking" (the "Chicago Workshop"), which promoted a revival of monetary studies. During the latter half of the 1940s, Friedman began a collaboration with Anna Schwartz, an economic historian at the Bureau, that would ultimately result in the 1963 publication of a book co-authored by Friedman and Schwartz, ''A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960''.

Friedman spent the 1954–55 academic year as a Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. At the time, the Cambridge economics faculty was divided into a Keynesian majority (including Joan Robinson and Richard Kahn) and an anti-Keynesian minority (headed by Dennis Robertson). Friedman speculates that he was invited to the fellowship because his views were unacceptable to both of the Cambridge factions. Later his weekly columns for ''Newsweek'' magazine (1966–84) were well read and increasingly influential among political and business people.

Friedman was an economic adviser to Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater during 1964.

Nobel memorial prize and retirement

In 1976 Friedman won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics "for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy." During the banquet speech he made a reference to “the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel”. In that he was the first recipient to do so, and it wasn’t until 2006 that a recipient of the prize called it by its proper name. During 1977, at age 65, Friedman retired from the University of Chicago after teaching there for 30 years. He and his wife moved to San Francisco. From 1977 on, he was affiliated with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. During the same year, Friedman was approached by the Free To Choose Network and asked to create a television program presenting his economic and social philosophy. The Friedmans worked on this project for the next three years, and during 1980, the ten-part series, titled ''Free to Choose'', was broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The companion book to the series (co-authored by Milton and his wife, Rose Friedman), also titled ''Free To Choose'', was the bestselling nonfiction book of 1980 and has since been translated into 14 foreign languages.

Friedman served as an unofficial adviser to Ronald Reagan during his 1980 presidential campaign, and then served on the President's Economic Policy Advisory Board for the rest of the Reagan Administration. During 1988, he received the National Medal of Science and Reagan honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Milton Friedman is known now as one of the most influential economists of the 20th century. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Friedman continued to write editorials and appear on television. He made several visits to Eastern Europe and to China, where he also advised governments.

Scholarly contributions

Economics

Friedman was best known for reviving interest in the money supply as a determinant of the nominal value of output, that is, the quantity theory of money. Monetarism is the set of views associated with modern quantity theory. Its origins can be traced back to the 16th-century School of Salamanca or even further but Friedman's contribution is largely responsible for its modern popularization. He co-authored, with Anna Schwartz, ''A Monetary History of the United States'' (1963), which was an examination of the role of the money supply and economic activity in U.S. history. A striking conclusion of their research was one regarding the role of money supply fluctuations as contributing to economic fluctuations. Several regression studies with David Meiselman during the 1960s suggested the primacy of the money supply over investment and government spending in determining consumption and output. These challenged a prevailing but largely untested view on their relative importance. Friedman's empirical research and some theory supported the conclusion that the short-run effect of a change of the money supply was primarily on output but that the longer-run effect was primarily on the price level.

Friedman was the main proponent of the monetarist school of economics. He maintained that there is a close and stable association between price inflation and the money supply, mainly that price inflation should be regulated with monetary deflation and price deflation with monetary inflation. He famously quipped that price deflation can be fought by "dropping money out of a helicopter."

Friedman's arguments were designed to counter popular claims that price inflation at the time was the result of increases in the price of oil, or increases in wages: as he wrote,

Friedman rejected the use of fiscal policy as a tool of demand management; and he held that the government's role in the guidance of the economy should be restricted severely. Friedman wrote extensively on the Great Depression, which he termed the Great Contraction, arguing that it had been caused by an ordinary financial shock whose duration and seriousness were greatly increased by the subsequent contraction of the money supply caused by the misguided policies of the directors of the Federal Reserve.

Friedman also argued for the cessation of government intervention in currency markets, thereby spawning an enormous literature on the subject, as well as promoting the practice of freely floating exchange rates. His close friend George Stigler explained, "As is customary in science, he did not win a full victory, in part because research was directed along different lines by the theory of rational expectations, a newer approach developed by Robert Lucas, also at the University of Chicago."

Friedman was also known for his work on the consumption function, the permanent income hypothesis (1957), which Friedman himself referred to as his best scientific work. This work contended that rational consumers would spend a proportional amount of what they perceived to be their permanent income. Windfall gains would mostly be saved. Tax reductions likewise, as rational consumers would predict that taxes would have to increase later to balance public finances. Other important contributions include his critique of the Phillips curve and the concept of the natural rate of unemployment (1968). This critique associated his name, together with that of Edmund Phelps, with the insight that a government that brings about greater inflation cannot permanently reduce unemployment by doing so. Unemployment may be temporarily lower, if the inflation is a surprise, but in the long run unemployment will be determined by the frictions and imperfections of the labor market.

Friedman's essay "The Methodology of Positive Economics" (1953) provided the epistemological pattern for his own subsequent research and to a degree that of the Chicago School of Economics. There he argued that economics as ''science'' should be free of value judgments for it to be objective. Moreover, a useful economic theory should be judged not by its descriptive realism but by its simplicity and fruitfulness as an engine of prediction.

Statistics

One of his most famous contributions to statistics is sequential sampling. "Friedman did statistical work at the Division of War Research at Columbia. He and his colleagues came up with a sampling technique, known as sequential sampling, which became, in the words of ''The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics'', 'the standard analysis of quality control inspection.' The dictionary adds: 'Like many of Friedman’s contributions, in retrospect it seems remarkably simple and obvious to apply basic economic ideas to quality control; that however is a measure of his genius.'"

Other work

Friedman was an important member of the team during World War II that developed a new proximity fuse for anti-aircraft projectiles, which prevented shells from exploding unless they were near the object they are meant to destroy.

Public policy positions

Friedman believed that if the money supply was to be centrally controlled (as by the Federal Reserve) that the preferable way to do it would be with a mechanical system that would keep the quantity of money increasing at a steady rate. However, instead of government involvement at all, he was open to a "real," non-government, gold standard where money is produced by the private market: "A real gold standard is thoroughly consistent with [classical] liberal principles and I, for one, am entirely in favor of measures promoting its development." He did however add this caveat, "Let me emphasize that this note is not a plea for a return to a gold standard.... I regard a return to a gold standard as neither desirable nor feasible—with the one exception that it might become feasible if the doomsday predictions of hyperinflation under our present system should prove correct." He said the reason that it was not feasible was because "there is essentially no government in the world that is willing to surrender control over its domestic monetary policy," however it could be done if "you could re-establish a world in which government's budget accounted for 10 percent of the national income, in which laissez-faire reigned, in which governments did not interfere with economic activities and in which full employment policies had been relegated to the dustbin..."

He was critical of the Federal Reserve's influence on the economics profession. In a 1993 letter to University of Texas economics professor and former House Banking Committee investigator Robert Auerbach, Friedman wrote:

I cannot disagree with you that having something like 500 economists is extremely unhealthy. As you say, it is not conducive to independent, objective research. You and I know there has been censorship of the material published. Equally important, the location of the economists in the Federal Reserve has had a significant influence on the kind of research they do, biasing that research toward noncontroversial technical papers on method as opposed to substantive papers on policy and results.

In his 1955 article "The Role of Government in Education" Friedman proposed supplementing publicly operated schools with privately run but publicly funded schools through a system of school vouchers. Reforms similar to those proposed in the article were implemented in, for example, Chile in 1981 and Sweden in 1992. In 1996 Friedman, together with his wife, founded the The Foundation for Educational Choice to advocate school choice and vouchers. Friedman also supported libertarian policies such as legalization of drugs and prostitution. Milton Friedman was a major proponent of a volunteer military, stating that the draft was "inconsistent with a free society." In ''Capitalism and Freedom'', he argued that conscription is inequitable and arbitrary, preventing young men to shape their lives as they see fit. During the Nixon administration he headed the committee to research a conversion to paid/volunteer armed force. He would later state that his role in eliminating the conscription in the United States was his proudest accomplishment. Friedman did, however, believe a nation could compel military ''training'' as a reserve in case of war time.

He served as a member of President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board during 1981. During 1988, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science. He said that he was a libertarian philosophically, but a member of the U.S. Republican Party for the sake of "expediency" ("I am a libertarian with a small 'l' and a Republican with a capital 'R.' And I am a Republican with a capital 'R' on grounds of expediency, not on principle.") But, he said, "I think the term classical liberal is also equally applicable. I don't really care very much what I'm called. I'm much more interested in having people thinking about the ideas, rather than the person."

Friedman was supportive of the state provision of some public goods that private businesses are not considered as being able to provide. However, he argued that many of the services performed by government could be performed better by the private sector. Above all, if some public goods are provided by the state, he believed that they should not be a legal monopoly where private competition is prohibited. For, example, in response to the United States Post Office's legal monopoly of mail, he said

Friedman made newspaper headlines by proposing a negative income tax to replace the existing welfare system, and then opposing a bill to implement it because the bill merely proposed to supplement the existing system rather than replace it.

During 2005, Friedman and more than 500 other economists advocated discussions regarding the economic benefits of the legalization of marijuana.

Michael Walker of the Fraser Institute and Friedman hosted a series of conferences from 1986 to 1994. The goal was to create a clear definition of economic freedom and a method for measuring it. Eventually this resulted in the first report on worldwide economic freedom, ''Economic Freedom in the World''. This annual report has since provided data for numerous peer-reviewed studies and has influenced policy in several nations.

Along with sixteen other distinguished economists he opposed the Copyright Term Extension Act and filed an amicus brief in ''Eldred v. Ashcroft''. He supported the inclusion of the word "no-brainer" in the brief.

Friedman argued for stronger basic legal (constitutional) protection of economic rights and freedoms in order to further promote industrial-commercial growth and prosperity and buttress democracy and freedom and the rule of law generally in society.

Honors, recognition, and influence

Friedman allowed the Cato Institute to use his name for its biannual Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty beginning in 2001. A Friedman Prize was given to the late British economist Peter Bauer during 2002, Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto during 2004, Mart Laar, former Estonian Prime Minister during 2006 and a young Venezuelan student Yon Goicoechea during 2008. His wife Rose, sister of Aaron Director, with whom he initiated the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, served on the international selection committee. Friedman was also a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Hong Kong

Friedman once said, "If you want to see capitalism in action, go to Hong Kong." He wrote in 1990 that the Hong Kong economy was perhaps the best example of a free market economy.

One month before his death, he wrote the article "Hong Kong Wrong – What would Cowperthwaite say?" in the ''Wall Street Journal'', criticizing Donald Tsang, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, for abandoning "positive noninterventionism." Tsang later said he was merely changing the slogan to "big market, small government," where small government is defined as less than 20% of GDP. In a debate between Tsang and Alan Leong, rivals for the job of Chief Executive, Leong introduced the topic and jokingly accused Tsang of angering Friedman to death.

Chile

During 1975, two years after the military coup that ended the government of Salvador Allende, the economy of Chile experienced a crisis. Friedman accepted the invitation of a private foundation to visit Chile and speak on principles of economic freedom. He spent seven days in Chile giving a series of lectures. One of the lectures was entitled "The Fragility of Freedom," and according to Friedman, "dealt with precisely the threat to freedom from a centralized military government." Friedman encapsulated his philosophy in a lecture at Universidad Católica de Chile, saying: "free markets would undermine political centralization and political control."

Friedman also met with military dictator President Augusto Pinochet during his visit. He never served as an adviser to the Chilean government, but did write a letter to Pinochet outlining what Friedman considered the two key economic problems of Chile. The letter listed a series of monetary and fiscal measures deemed a "shock program" to end hyperinflation and promote a market economy. His letter suggested (among other, more specific prescriptions) that a brief period of cutting government spending would reduce its fiscal deficit and thus reduce the rate of increase of the quantity of money in the country that was driving inflation. The economist did however admit his knowledge of Chile was "too limited to enable [him] to be precise or comprehensive" and that the measures he outlined were "to be taken as illustrative." Friedman felt that there might be a brief period ("measured in months") of higher unemployment, followed by recovery once inflation was tamed. His letter also suggested that cutting spending to reduce the fiscal deficit would result in less transitional unemployment than raising taxes to do so. Later, Friedman said he believed that market reforms would undermine Pinochet. Chilean graduates of the Chicago School of Economics and its new local chapters had been appointed to important positions in the new government soon after the coup, which allowed them to advise Pinochet on economic policies in accord with the School's economic doctrine.

According to his critics, Friedman did not criticize Pinochet's dictatorship at the time, nor the assassinations, illegal imprisonments, torture, or other atrocities that were well known by then. In his 1980 documentary ''Free to Choose'', he said the following: "Chile is not a politically free system, and I do not condone the system. But the people there are freer than the people in Communist societies because government plays a smaller role. ... The conditions of the people in the past few years has been getting better and not worse. They would be still better to get rid of the junta and to be able to have a free democratic system." In 1984 Friedman proclaimed he has "never refrained from criticizing the political system in Chile."

Friedman defended his activity in Chile on the grounds that, in his opinion, the adoption of free market policies not only improved the economic situation of Chile but also contributed to the amelioration of Pinochet's rule and to the eventual transition to a democratic government during 1990. That idea is included in ''Capitalism and Freedom'', in which he declared that economic freedom is not only desirable in itself but is also a necessary condition for political freedom. He stressed that the lectures he gave in Chile were the same lectures he later gave in China and other socialist states. During the 2000 PBS documentary ''The Commanding Heights'', Friedman continued to argue that criticism over his role in Chile missed his main contention that freer markets resulted in freer people, and that Chile's unfree economy had caused the military government. Friedman suggested that the economic liberalization he advocated caused the end of military rule and a free Chile.

Iceland

Friedman visited Iceland during the autumn of 1984, met with important Icelanders and gave a lecture at the University of Iceland on the "tyranny of the ''status quo''." He participated in a lively television debate on August 31, 1984 with socialist intellectuals, including Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who later became the president of Iceland. When they complained that a fee was charged for attending his lecture at the University and that hitherto, lectures by visiting scholars had been free-of-charge, Friedman replied that previous lectures had not been free-of-charge in a meaningful sense: Lectures always have related costs. What mattered was whether attendees or non-attendees covered those costs. Friedman thought that it was fairer that only those who attended paid. In this discussion Friedman also stated that he did not receive any money for delivering that lecture.

Estonia

Although Friedman never visited Estonia, his book ''Free to Choose'' exercised a great influence on that nation's then 32-year-old prime minister, Mart Laar, who has claimed that it was the only book on economics he had read before taking office. Laar's reforms are often credited with responsibility for transforming Estonia from an impoverished Soviet Republic to the "Baltic Tiger." A prime element of Laar's program was introduction of the flat tax. Laar won the 2006 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, awarded by the Cato Institute.

United Kingdom

Milton Friedman influenced the thinking of Alan Walters and Patrick Minford, two of Margaret Thatcher's main macroeconomic advisers. See the book ''Margaret Thatcher's Revolution: How it Happened and What it Meant'', edited by Subroto Roy & John Clarke, Continuum 2005

Criticism

Keynesian criticism

During the financial crisis of 2007–2010, several Keynesian economists such as James Galbraith and Joseph Stiglitz blamed the free market philosophy of Friedman and the Chicago school for the economic turmoil. In response to these criticisms, University of Chicago Magazine noted that Chicago's Rajan, Thaler, and Vishney warned the US government that regulations are needed and, “The Chicago School never said we wanted blind deregulation ... We should really ask who were the people in 2000 who decided markets don’t need regulating. Those were not Chicago economists. Some of them were Clinton officials, and some of them are now advising Obama” and noted other examples to claim that their economists are often mischaracterized regarding their views on deregulation.

After Friedman's death, Keynesian Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, while regarding Friedman as a "great economist and a great man," criticized him during 2007 by writing that "he slipped all too easily into claiming both that markets always work and that only markets work. It's extremely hard to find cases in which Friedman acknowledged the possibility that markets could go wrong, or that government intervention could serve a useful purpose." National Bureau of Economic Research economist and Friedman's long-time colleague and co-author Anna Schwartz, and Edward Nelson of the Centre for Economic Policy Research responded that Krugman "doubletalks throughout his essay," and asked "How can he say Friedman was a great economist and a great man, if he believes Friedman to have been intellectually dishonest?"

Austrian school criticism

During 1971, libertarian economist Murray Rothbard criticized Friedman's efforts to make the government more efficient as detrimental to individual liberty. He concluded that "And so, as we examine Milton Friedman’s credentials to be the leader of free-market economics, we arrive at the chilling conclusion that it is difficult to consider him a free-market economist at all." Friedman's position on governmental control of money changed since 1971 when this criticism was made. In a 1995 interview in ''Reason'' magazine he said the "difference between me and people like Murray Rothbard is that, though I want to know what my ideal is, I think I also have to be willing to discuss changes that are less than ideal so long as they point me in that direction." He said he actually would "like to abolish the Fed," and points out that when he has written about the Fed it is simply his recommendations of how it should be run given that it exists.

Other criticism

In her book ''The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism'', journalist and author Naomi Klein critiqued Friedman's ideology and the principles that guided the economic restructuring that followed the military coups in countries such as Chile and Indonesia, drawing analogies between the way that Friedman proposed using the social "shock" of the coups to create an economic "blank slate" with Ewen Cameron's controversial medical experiments that used electroshock therapy to create a mental "blank slate" in patients with mental disorders. Based on the extent to which the application of neoliberal policies has contributed to income disparities and inequality, both Klein and Noam Chomsky have suggested that the primary role of neoliberalism was as an ideological cover for capital accumulation by multinational corporations. Chilean economist Orlando Letelier asserted that Pinochet's dictatorship resorted to repression because of popular opposition to Chicago School policies in Chile.

Klein's critique of Friedman is disputed by economists, including Tyler Cowen and Don Boudreaux. Johan Norberg, a senior fellow at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, accused Klein of distorting quotations from Friedman's writings and of "link[ing] him to Augusto Pinochet's brutal military dictatorship in Chile in the 1970s."

Personal life

According to a 2007 article in ''Commentary'' magazine, his "parents were moderately observant [Jews], but Friedman, after an intense burst of childhood piety, rejected religion altogether." He described himself as an agnostic.

Friedman wrote extensively of his life and experiences, especially in 1998 in his memoirs with his wife Rose, titled ''Two Lucky People''. He died of heart failure at the age of 94 years in San Francisco on November 16, 2006. He was survived by his wife (who died on August 18, 2009) and their two children, David, who is a philosopher and anarcho-capitalist economist, and Janet. David's son, Patri Friedman, is the executive director of the Seasteading Institute.

See also

Works of Milton Friedman

Friedman–Savage utility function

Friedman rule

Friedman's k-percent rule

Friedman test

List of economists

List of Jewish Nobel laureates

List of notable Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients

History of economic thought

Notes

Bibliography

References

Wood, John Cunningham, and Ronald N. Wood, ed. (1990) ''Milton Friedman: Critical Assessments'', v. 3. Scroll to chapter-preview links. Routledge.

Further reading

Friedman, Milton (1948). "A Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Economic Stability," '' American Economic Review'', 38(3), pp. 245-264. Also in Friedman (1953), pp. 133–56.

Friedman, Milton (1953). ''Essays in Positive Economics'', University of Chicago Press. Chapter- preview links.

Friedman, Milton (1959). ''A Program for Monetary Stability''. Fordham University Press. New York. TOC chapter-preview links.

External links

The Milton Friedman papers at the Hoover Institution Archives

Selected Bibliography for Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago Library

Inflation and Unemployment 1976 lecture at NobelPrize.org

Profile and Papers at Research Papers in Economics/RePEc

Milton Friedman, ''Commanding Heights'', PBS, October 1, 2000, interview, profile and video

Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago

Milton Friedman at the Cato Institute

Free to Choose Network

The Foundation for Educational Choice

Milton Fridman at Scarlett

Milton Friedman:Why Not a Volunteer Army?, ''New Individualist Review'', Spring 1967

The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits, Milton Friedman, ''The New York Times Magazine'', September 13, 1970

Interview with Milton Friedman, Dominic Streatfeild, May 25, 2000, source material for ''Cocaine: An Unauthorised Biography''

Milton Friedman vs. The Fed Bailout by Michael Hirsh, ''Newsweek'', July 17, 2009

Four Deformations of the Apocalypse, David Stockman, ''The New York Times'', July 31, 2010

The Case for Free Trade by Milton and Rose Friedman

How to Cure Inflation : Milton Friedman

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