name	Jonathan Demme
birth name	Robert Jonathan Demme
birth date	February 22, 1944
birth place	Baldwin, Nassau County, New York, U.S.
spouse	Joanne Howard Evelyn Purcell
occupation	director, producer, actor, screenwriter
years active	1971 - present}}

Robert Jonathan Demme (born February 22, 1944) is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for directing ''The Silence of the Lambs'', which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, as well as ''Philadelphia'' and ''Rachel Getting Married'', the Talking Heads concert movie ''Stop Making Sense'' and a trilogy of Neil Young documentary/concert movies.

Career

Demme broke into feature film working for exploitation film producer Roger Corman from 1971 to 1976, co-writing and producing ''Angels Hard as They Come'' and ''The Hot Box''. He then moved on to directing, with three films (''Caged Heat'', ''Crazy Mama'', ''Fighting Mad'') for Corman's studio New World Pictures. After ''Fighting Mad'', Demme directed the comedy film ''Handle with Care'' for Paramount Pictures in 1977. The film was well-reviewed by critics, but received little promotion, and performed poorly at the box office.

Demme's next film, 1980's ''Melvin and Howard'', did not get a wide release, but received a groundswell of critical acclaim, and led to the signing of Demme to direct the Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell star vehicle ''Swing Shift''. Intended as a prestige picture for Warner Bros. as well as a major commercial vehicle for Demme, it instead became a troubled production due to the conflicting visions of Demme and star Hawn. Demme ended up renouncing the finished product, and when the film was released in May 1984, it was generally panned by critics and neglected by moviegoers. After ''Swing Shift'', Demme stepped back from Hollywood to make the Talking Heads concert film ''Stop Making Sense''; the eclectic screwball action-romantic comedy Something Wild; a film-version of the stage production ''Swimming to Cambodia'', by monologist Spaulding Gray; and the New York Mafia-by-way-of Downtown comedy Married to the Mob.

In 1991, Demme won the Academy Award for ''The Silence of the Lambs''—one of only three films to win all the major categories (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress). Demme followed that up with ''Philadelphia'', which garnered star Tom Hanks a Best Actor Oscar.

Since then, Demme's films have included an adaptation of Toni Morrison's Beloved, and remakes of two popular films: ''The Truth About Charlie'', based on ''Charade'' that starred Mark Wahlberg in the Cary Grant role; and ''The Manchurian Candidate'', with Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep.

In 2007, Demme's film ''Man from Plains'', a documentary about former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's book tour in promotion of his book ''Palestine: Peace not Apartheid'', premiered at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals.

In 2008, the art-house hit ''Rachel Getting Married'' was released, which many critics compared to Demme's films of the late 1970s and 1980s. It was included in many 2008 "best of" lists, and received numerous awards and nominations, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress by lead Anne Hathaway. In 2010, Demme made his first foray into theater, directing ''Family Week'', a play by Beth Henley. The play was produced by MCC Theater and co-starred Rosemarie DeWitt and Sarah Jones.

Demme has directed music videos for artists such as Suburban Lawns, New Order, KRS-One's H.E.A.L. project and Bruce Springsteen. He also produced a compilation of Haitian music called Konbit: Burning Rhythms of Haiti that was released in 1989.

Demme is on the Board of Directors at Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY. In addition to his role on the board, he curates and hosts a monthly series called "Rarely Seen Cinema".

Clinica Estetico

Demme formed his production company, Clinica Estetico, with producers Edward Saxon and Peter Saraf. They were based out of New York City for fifteen years.

Personal life

Demme was born in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York in 1944, and graduated from the University of Florida.

He is currently a member of the steering committee of the Friends of the Apollo Theater in Oberlin, Ohio, along with Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. Demme has three children by two marriages: Ramona, Brooklyn, Josephine. He also was the uncle of film director Ted Demme, who died in 2002.

During the 1980s, Demme had a brief romantic relationship with rock singer Belinda Carlisle, who appeared in his movie ''Swing Shift''.

Filmography

''Angels Hard as They Come'' (1971)

''The Hot Box'' (1972)

''Caged Heat'' (1974)

''Crazy Mama'' (1975)

''Fighting Mad'' (1976)

''Handle with Care'' (a.k.a. ''Citizen's Band'') (1977)

''Last Embrace'' (1979)

''Melvin and Howard'' (1980)

''Who Am I This Time?'' (1983) (TV)

''Swing Shift'' (1984)

''Stop Making Sense'' (1984)

''Something Wild'' (1986)

''Swimming to Cambodia'' (1987)

''Haiti: Dreams of Democracy'' (1987)

''Trying Times (1987) (TV)

''Married to the Mob'' (1988)

''The Silence of the Lambs'' (1991)

''Cousin Bobby'' (1992)

''Philadelphia'' (1993)

''Beloved'' (1998)

''Storefront Hitchcock'' (1998)

''The Truth About Charlie'' (2002)

''The Agronomist'' (2003)

''The Manchurian Candidate'' (2004)

''Neil Young: Heart of Gold'' (2006)

''Man from Plains'' (2007)

''New Home Movies From the Lower 9th Ward'' (2007)

''Rachel Getting Married'' (2008)

''Neil Young Trunk Show'' (2009)

Awards and nominations

Academy Award

* 1991: ''Silence of the Lambs'' (Won)

Golden Globe

* 1991: ''Silence of the Lambs'' (''Nomination'')

BAFTA Award

* 1991: ''Silence of the Lambs'' (''Nomination - Best Film'')

* 1991: ''Silence of the Lambs'' (''Nomination - Best Director'')

Saturn Award

* 1991: ''Silence of the Lambs'' (''Nomination'')

Berlinale

* 1991: ''Silence of the Lambs'' (''Nomination'') - Golden Bear

1991: ''Silence of the Lambs'' (''Won'') - Silver Bear for Best Director

* 1994: ''Philadelphia'' (''Nomination'') - Golden Bear

References

External links

Storefront Demme

Category:1944 births Category:American film directors Category:American film producers Category:American screenwriters Category:Best Director Academy Award winners Category:Living people Category:People from Long Island Category:University of Florida alumni Category:Silver Bear for Best Director recipients

ar:جوناثان ديم an:Jonathan Demme bn:জোনাথন ডেমি bs:Jonathan Demme ca:Jonathan Demme cy:Jonathan Demme da:Jonathan Demme de:Jonathan Demme es:Jonathan Demme eu:Jonathan Demme fa:جاناتان دمی fr:Jonathan Demme hr:Jonathan Demme id:Jonathan Demme it:Jonathan Demme he:ג'ונתן דמי ht:Jonathan Demme la:Ionathan Demme hu:Jonathan Demme nl:Jonathan Demme ja:ジョナサン・デミ no:Jonathan Demme pl:Jonathan Demme pt:Jonathan Demme ro:Jonathan Demme ru:Демми, Джонатан sk:Jonathan Demme sl:Jonathan Demme fi:Jonathan Demme sv:Jonathan Demme tr:Jonathan Demme

name	Tavis Smiley
birthname	Tavis Smiley
birth date	September 13, 1964
birth place	Gulfport, MississippiUnited States
age	46
education	Indiana University (B.A., public affairs, 2003)
occupation	Talk show host Author Entrepreneur Advocate Philanthropist
ethnicity	African-American
religion	Christian
credits	''Tavis Smiley'' host (2004–present)''The Tavis Smiley Show'' from PRI (radio) host(2005-present)"Smiley & West" co-host (2010-present)''BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley'' host (1996–2001)
url	http://www.tavistalks.com/ }}

Tavis Smiley (; born September 13, 1964) is a talk show host, author, liberal political commentator, entrepreneur, advocate and philanthropist. Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi and grew up in Kokomo, Indiana. After attending Indiana University, he worked during the late 1980s as an aide to Tom Bradley, the mayor of Los Angeles. Smiley became a radio commentator in 1991, and starting in 1996 he hosted the talk show ''BET Talk'' (later renamed ''BET Tonight'') on BET. Controversially, after Smiley sold an exclusive interview of Sara Jane Olson to ABC News in 2001, BET declined to renew Smiley's contract that year. Smiley then began hosting ''The Tavis Smiley Show'' on NPR from 2002 to 2004 and currently hosts ''Tavis Smiley'' on PBS on the weekdays and "The Tavis Smiley Show" from PRI. Most recently, he and close friend Dr. Cornel West have joined forces for their own radio talk show, "Smiley & West". They were featured together interviewing musician Bill Withers in the 2009 documentary film ''Still Bill''.

Early years

Tavis Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, the son of Joyce Marie Roberts, a single mother who first became pregnant at age 18. On September 13, 1966, just shy of his second birthday, his mother married Emory Garnell Smiley, a non-commisioned officer in the U.S. Air Force. It would not be until a few years later that Tavis would learn the identity of his biological father, whom he identifies in his autobiography, ''What I Know For Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America'' only as "T."

His family soon moved to Indiana because his stepfather had been transferred to Grissom Air Force Base near Peru, Indiana. Upon arriving in Indiana, the Smiley family took up residence in a crowded mobile home in the small town of Bunker Hill, Indiana. Smiley's immediate family size was increased following the homicide of his aunt, whose death left five children with no stable home. Smiley's parents agreed to take in and raise their five orphaned nieces and nephews. Joyce and her husband also had eight children of their own over the years, resulting at one point in 13 children and Mr. and Mrs. Smiley all living in the trailer-home. Smiley's mother was a very religious person, and the family attended the local New Bethel Tabernacle Church, part of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. The Smiley children were forbidden from listening to secular music at home and going to the movie theater and could watch television shows that their parents felt were family-friendly. When Tavis Smiley was in seventh grade, New Bethel pastor Elder Rufus Mills accused Tavis and his siblings of "running wild, disobeying their teacher, disrespecting their teacher, disrespecting the sanctity of this building, and mocking the holy message being taught" during Sunday School. According to Smiley's account of the incident, Smiley's Sunday School teacher became more confused as she was asking questions about the Book of John, and while other students "responded by giggling and acting a little unruly," he and his sister Phyllis "remained quiet". Garnell whipped Tavis and Phyllis with an extension cord, wounding the two children. The next day at school, administrators found out about the children's injuries. The local newspaper in Kokomo reported on the beating and the legal proceedings against Garnell, and Tavis and Phyllis were sent to foster care temporarily, Garnell told his children that the judge decided that he had "overreacted" and found he and Joyce as "concerned parents who were completely involved in our children's lives and well-being".

Smiley became interested in politics at age 13 after attending a fundraiser for U.S. Senator Birch Bayh. At Maconaquah High School in Bunker Hill, Indiana, a school that Smiley described as "98 percent white", Smiley was active in student council and the debate team, even though his parents were "skeptical of all non-church extracurricular activities."

College and political career

In 1982, Smiley enrolled in Indiana University Bloomington (IU). Because Smiley's parents refused to complete financial aid papers, Smiley entered Indiana University with only $50 and a small suitcase. Administrators let Smiley complete the paperwork to become a full-time student. The summer after his freshman year, Smiley worked, attended summer classes, and lived off campus with Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball players, then being coached by Bobby Knight. Smiley was accepted into the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity during his sophomore year and became business manager of his dormitory, a member of the student senate, and director of minority affairs. After his friend Denver Smith was killed by Indiana police officers who claimed to have acted in self-defense, Smiley helped lead protests to defend Smith, whom he believed had been wrongfully killed. Those protests led Smiley to a work-study internship at the office of Bloomington mayor Tomilea Allison. Being paid $5 an hour, Smiley wrote letters to local residents, researched for Mayor Allison, and helped write positions on local issues. Mayor Allison rebuked Smiley for padding his time sheets and had Smiley work off the extra hours without pay. During his first semester of junior year, Smiley was under academic probation and blamed his extracurricular activities for interfering with his studies. When Smiley visited Los Angeles to attend a national student leaders' convention, the cousin of his roommate introduced Smiley to football star Jim Brown. Brown introduced Smiley to fellow football player George Hughley, who worked for Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley and connected Smiley to Mayor Bradley's staff. Every week since meeting Bradley's staff, Smiley wrote a letter to the mayor's office asking for an internship and once personally flew to Los Angeles to appeal. However, by summertime he received a letter from the city stating that all internship positions were filled. Smiley then handwrote a letter to the mayor that he said represented his feeling "from the heart", and Bradley called Smiley to say that he had a position available for Smiley. As the internship was unpaid but counted for college credit, the Bloomington Community Progress Council funded Smiley with $5,000 for living expenses in Los Angeles, and Brown allowed Smiley to live as a houseguest during September 1985. Starting the next month, Smiley lived in the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity house in the University of Southern California. At City Hall, Smiley worked at the Office of Youth Development on the 22nd floor.

Twice, Smiley considered quitting college, first during junior year, and then after finishing his internship with Mayor Bradley. Bradley successfully convinced Smiley to return to college, and Smiley did. Smiley took the LSAT twice, as he was considering attending Harvard Law School. However, in his senior year, he failed a test in a computer class after being accused of copying another student's, so he failed that class and several others and lacked nine hours of credits and thus did not graduate from IU. Following a hiring freeze by the government of Los Angeles, Smiley served as an aide to Mayor Bradley until 1990. A 1988 article in the ''Los Angeles Times'' identified Smiley as "a Bradley administrative assistant who works in South Los Angeles." In 2003, Smiley officially received his degree from Indiana University in public affairs.

Radio and television career

Campaigning for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council in 1991 against incumbent Ruth Galanter, Smiley finished fourth among 15 candidates. Smiley became a radio commentator, broadcasting one-minute daily radio segments called ''The Smiley Report'' on KGFJ radio. With Ruben Navarrette, Jr., Smiley co-hosted a local talk show in Los Angeles where his strongly held views on race and politics, combined with his arguments regarding the impact of institutional racism and substandard educational and economic opportunities for inner-city black youth, earned him attention on the ''Los Angeles Times''. His commentaries focused on local and national current-affairs issues affecting the African-American community. For six months, Smiley worked on a community news program on a local cable network and spent six more months working on television in Montreal.

In 1996, Smiley became a frequent commentator on the ''Tom Joyner Morning Show'', a nationally syndicated radio show broadcast on black and urban stations in the United States. He developed a friendship with host Joyner; together they began hosting annual town hall meetings beginning in 2000 called "The State of the Black Union" which were aired live on the C-SPAN cable television network. These town hall meetings each focused on a specific topic affecting the African-American community, featuring a panel of African-American leaders, educators, and professionals assembled before an audience to discuss problems related to the forum's topic, as well as potential solutions. Smiley also used his commentator status on Joyner's radio show to launch several advocacy campaigns to highlight discriminatory practices in the media and government and to rally support for causes such as the awarding of a Congressional Gold Medal to civil rights icon Rosa Parks. Smiley also began building a national reputation as a political commentator with numerous appearances on political discussion shows on MSNBC, ABC, and CNN.

Also in 1996, Smiley began hosting and executive producing ''BET Tonight'' (originally ''BET Talk'' when it first premiered), a public affairs discussion show on the Black Entertainment Television (BET) network. Smiley interviewed major political figures and celebrities and discussed topics ranging from racial profiling and police brutality to R&B; music and Hollywood gossip. Smiley hosted ''BET Tonight'' until 2001, when in a controversial move, the network announced that Smiley's contract would not be renewed. This sparked an angry response from Joyner, who sought to rally his radio audience to protest BET's decision. Robert L. Johnson, founder of BET, defended the decision, stating that Smiley had been fired because he had sold an exclusive interview to ABC News without first offering the story to BET, even though Smiley's contract with BET did not require him to do so. Smiley countered with the assertion that he had offered the story — an interview with Sara Jane Olson, an alleged former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army — to CBS, which, along with BET, was owned by Viacom. Smiley ultimately sold the interview to rival network ABC, he said, only after CBS passed on the interview, and suggested that his firing was payback for the publicity he gained as a result of providing an exclusive interview to ABC. Ultimately BET and Viacom did not reverse their decision to terminate Smiley's contract.

Smiley was then offered a chance to host a radio talk show on National Public Radio. He served as host of ''The Tavis Smiley Show'' on NPR until December 2004 when he announced that he would be leaving his NPR show, citing the network's inability to reach a more diverse audience. Smiley launched a weekly version of his radio program ''The Tavis Smiley Show'' on April 29, 2005, distributed by NPR rival Public Radio International. On October 1, 2010, Tavis Smiley turned the second hour of his PRI program into Smiley & West co-hosted by his longtime collaborator Dr. Cornel West. Smiley also hosts ''Tavis Smiley'', a late night talk show televised on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network and produced in association with WNET in New York.

Smiley moderated two live presidential candidate forums in 2007: a Democratic forum on June 28 at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and a Republican forum on September 27 at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Smiley appears on the ''Democracy Now!'' show.

Controversy over Presidential Candidate Barack Obama

On April 11, 2008, Tavis Smiley announced that he would resign in June 2008 as a commentator on the ''Tom Joyner Morning Show''. He cited fatigue and a busy schedule in a personal call to Joyner. However Joyner—referring to several commentaries in which Smiley was critical of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama—indicated otherwise on his program, stating: "The real reason is that he can't take the hate he's been getting regarding the Barack issue—hate from the black people that he loves so much." Prior to the public controversy and being elected President, Obama had been on Smiley's PBS show six times.

''The Covenant with Black America''

In March 2006, ''The Smiley Group'' and Third World Press published ''The Covenant with Black America'', a collection of essays by black scholars and professionals edited by Smiley. The book covers topics ranging from education to healthcare as discussed in several "State of the Black Union" forums.

Described by the publisher as a national plan of action to address the primary concerns of African-Americans related to social and economic disparities but seen by others as a self-promoting rehash of old ideas, the book became the first non-fiction book by a Black-owned publisher to be listed as the number-one non-fiction paperback in America by The New York Times Best Seller list.

Awards and contributions

Smiley was honored with the NAACP Image Award for best news, talk, or information series for three consecutive years (1997–99) for his work on ''BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley''.

Smiley's advocacy efforts have earned him numerous awards and recognitions including the recipient of the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Award from the National Association of Minorities in Communications.

In 1999, he founded the Tavis Smiley Foundation, which funds programs that develop young leaders in the black community. Since its inception, more than 6,000 young people have participated in the foundation's Youth to Leaders Training workshops and conferences.

His communications company, The Smiley Group, Inc., serves as the holding company for various enterprises encompassing broadcast and print media, lecturers, symposiums, and the Internet.

In 1994, ''Time'' named him one of America's 50 Most Promising Young Leaders. ''Time'' would later honor him in 2009 as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World." In May 2007, Smiley gave a commencement speech at his alma mater, Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana. In May 2008, he gave the commencement address at Connecticut College, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate. In May 2009, Smiley was awarded an honorary doctorate at Langston University after giving the commencement address there.

On December 12, 2008, Smiley received the Du Bois Medal from Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

He would also be awarded the 2009 Interdependence Day Prize from Demos in Istanbul, Turkey.

Indiana University recently honored Smiley by naming the atrium of its School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) building, The Tavis Smiley Atrium.

Smiley would be named No. 2 change agent in the field of media behind Oprah Winfrey in EBONY magazine's POWER 150 list.

Bibliography

''Just a Thought: The Smiley Report'' (ISBN 0-963-69523-1)

''Doing What's Right: How to Fight for What You Believe—And Make a Difference'' (ISBN 0-385-49931-0)

''Hard Left'' (ISBN 0-385-48404-6)

''Keeping the Faith: Stories of Love, Courage, Healing, and Hope from Black America'' (ISBN 0-385-72169-2)

''How to Make Black America Better: Leading African Americans Speak Out'' (ISBN 0-385-72087-4)

''On Air:The Best of Tavis Smiley on the Tom Joyner Morning Show'' (ISBN 1-890194-33-6)

''The Covenant with Black America'' (ISBN 0-88378-277-4)

''What I Know for Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America'' (ISBN 978-0-385-50516-1; ISBN 0-388-50516-7)

''Accountable: Making America As Good As Its Promise

''Fail Up'' (ISBN 1-401-93390-4)

References

Further reading

LaRue, William. "Tavis Smiley: NPR Host Brings Latenight Talk to PBS." ''Syracuse (NY) Post-Standard'', 1 February 2004, STARS section, pp. 4–6.

Slade, Scott. "Author Issues Wakeup Call." ''Kokomo (IN) Tribune'', 20 June 1996, p. 7.

External links

www.tavistalks.com Official web site

Tavis Smiley on WNET/PBS

Tavis Smiley at NPR

Tavis Smiley: The State of the Black Union Interview

Tavis Smiley on Rev. Martin Luther King and His Opposition to the Vietnam War - video by ''Democracy Now!''

Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:African American radio personalities Category:American journalists Category:American memoirists Category:American Pentecostals Category:American philanthropists Category:American political writers Category:American talk radio hosts Category:American television talk show hosts Category:Indiana University alumni Category:National Public Radio personalities Category:People from Gulfport, Mississippi Category:People from Kokomo, Indiana Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:People from Montreal Category:People from Peru, Indiana Category:Public Radio International personalities

de:Tavis Smiley fa:تویس سمایلی sv:Tavis Smiley

name	Neil Young
landscape	yes
background	solo_singer
birth name	Neil Percival Young
alias	Bernard Shakey, Phil Perspective, Shakey Deal, Clyde Coil, Joe Yankee, Marc Lynch, Pinecone Young
birth date	November 12, 1945
birth place	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
origin	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
genre	Rock, folk rock, country rock, experimental rock, hard rock, proto-grunge
occupation	Musician, songwriter, producer, director, screenwriter
instrument	Guitar, vocals, harmonica, piano, keyboards, banjo, ukelele
years active	1960–present
label	Reprise, Motown, Geffen
associated acts	The Squires, The Mynah Birds, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Crazy Horse, The Stray Gators, The Stills-Young Band, The Ducks, Northern Lights, Pearl Jam, Booker T. Jones, Leon Russell, Elton John
url
notable instruments	"Old Black"Martin D-45"Hank" }}

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation. Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960, before moving to California in 1966, where he co-founded the band Buffalo Springfield along with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, and later joined Crosby, Stills & Nash as a fourth member in 1969. He then forged a successful and acclaimed solo career, releasing his first album in 1968; his career has since spanned over 40 years and 34 studio albums, with a continual and uncompromising exploration of musical styles. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website describes Young as "one of rock and roll’s greatest songwriters and performers". He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame twice: first as a solo artist in 1995, and second as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997.

Young's work is characterized by his distinctive guitar work, deeply personal lyrics and signature falsetto/tenor singing voice. Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments, including piano and harmonica, his idiosyncratic electric and clawhammer acoustic guitar playing are the defining characteristics of a varyingly ragged and melodic sound. While Young has experimented with differing music styles, including swing and electronic music throughout a varied career, his best known work usually falls into two primary styles: acoustic folk and country rock, or amplified hard rock in collaboration with the band Crazy Horse. Young has also adopted elements from newer styles such as alternative rock and grunge. His influence on the latter caused some to dub him the "Godfather of Grunge".

Young has directed (or co-directed) a number of films using the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, including ''Journey Through the Past'' (1973), ''Rust Never Sleeps'' (1979), ''Human Highway'' (1982), ''Greendale'' (2003), and ''CSNY/Déjà Vu'' (2008). He is currently working on a documentary about electric car technology, tentatively titled ''Linc/Volt''. The project involves a 1959 Lincoln Continental converted to hybrid technology, which Young plans to drive to Washington, D.C. as an environmentalist example to lawmakers there.

Young is an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and the welfare of small farmers, having co-founded in 1985 the benefit concert Farm Aid. In 1986, Young helped found The Bridge School, an educational organization for children with severe verbal and physical disabilities, and its annual supporting Bridge School Benefit concerts, together with his wife Pegi Young (née Morton). Young has three children: sons Zeke (born during his relationship with actress Carrie Snodgress) and Ben, who were diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and daughter Amber Jean who, like Young himself, has epilepsy. Young lives on his ranch in La Honda, California. Although he has lived in northern California since the 1970s and sings as frequently about U.S. themes and subjects as he does about his native country, he retains Canadian citizenship, having no desire to relinquish it. On July 14, 2006, Young was awarded the Order of Manitoba, and on December 30, 2009, was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Life and career

Early years: 1945–1966

Neil Percival Young was born in Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario at 6:45 AM on 12 November 1945. His father, Scott Young (1918–2005), was a journalist, and sportswriter who would later rise to prominence in Canada for his work. His mother, Edna "Rassy" Young (1918–1990), was of American, French, and Irish ancestry. They married in 1940 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with their first son, Robert 'Bob' Young, being born in 1942.

Shortly after Neil's birth in 1945, the family decided to move to the rural town of Omemee, Ontario, which Neil would later fondly describe as a "Sleepy little place." Omemee later established the Youngtown Museum in tribute to Young. Young was diagnosed with diabetes as a child, and also suffered from a bout of polio in 1951, in what was the last major outbreak of the disease in Ontario. This was in fact the same epidemic in which singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, then aged nine, also contracted the virus.

Following his recovery, the Young family went on holiday to Florida in the United States in 1952, and upon returning to Canada soon decided to move away from Omemee and into the city of Toronto, before relocating to Pickering, which was just east of Toronto, and then again to north Toronto soon afterward. It was during this period that Young began to take an interest in popular music that he heard on the radio, and also began to rear chickens in order to sell their eggs.

When Neil was twelve, his father, who had been having a number of extra-marital affairs, left his mother, and she subsequently asked for, and received, a divorce some years later, in 1960. Due to the breakup of the family, Neil went to live with his mother, who moved back to Winnipeg, Manitoba, while his brother Bob stayed with his father in Toronto. During the mid-fifties, at around the age of ten or eleven, Young was drawn to a variety of musical genres including rock and roll, rockabilly, doo-wop, R&B;, country, and western pop. He would listen to pop music broadcast on the CHUM radio station via his transistor radio. Young has stated in interviews that growing up he idolized Elvis Presley and strived to be just like him, later referencing him in a number of his lyrics. Other early musical influences included Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Chantels, The Monotones, Ronnie Self, The Fleetwoods, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Gogi Grant. He first began to play music himself on a plastic ukulele, before, as he would later relate, going on to "a better ukulele to a banjo ukulele to a baritone ukulele – everything but a guitar."

Neil and his mother settled into the working class area of Fort Rouge, Winnipeg where the shy, dry-humoured youth enrolled at Earl Grey Junior High School. It was there that he formed his first band, The Jades, and met Ken Koblun, later to join him in The Squires. While attending Kelvin High School in Winnipeg, he played in several instrumental rock bands. Young's first stable band was called The Squires, with Ken Koblun, Jeff Wuckert and Bill Edmondson on drums, who had a local hit called "The Sultan." Young dropped out of high school and also played in Fort William (now part of the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario), where they recorded a series of demos produced by a local producer named Ray Dee, whom Young called "the original Briggs." While there, Young first encountered Stephen Stills. In the 2006 film ''Heart of Gold'', Young relates how he used to spend time as a teenager at Falcon Lake, Manitoba where he would endlessly plug coins into the jukebox to hear Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds".

After leaving the Squires, Neil worked folk clubs in Winnipeg, where he first met Joni Mitchell. Mitchell recalls Young as having been highly influenced by Bob Dylan at the time. Here he wrote some of his earliest and most enduring folk songs such as "Sugar Mountain", about lost youth. Mitchell wrote "The Circle Game" in response. Winnipeg band The Guess Who (Randy Bachman being their lead guitarist) had a Top 40 Canadian hit with Young's "Flying on the Ground is Wrong," which was Young's first major hit as a songwriter.

In 1965 Young toured Canada as a solo artist. In 1966, while in Toronto, he joined the Rick James-fronted Mynah Birds. The band managed to secure a record deal with the Motown label, but as their first album was being recorded, James was arrested for being AWOL from the Naval Reserve. After the Mynah Birds disbanded, Young and bass player Bruce Palmer relocated to Los Angeles. Young admitted in a 2009 interview that he was in the United States illegally until receiving a green card in 1970.

Buffalo Springfield (1966–1968)

Once they reached Los Angeles, Young and Palmer met up with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, and Dewey Martin to form Buffalo Springfield. A mixture of folk, country, psychedelia, and rock lent a hard edge by the twin lead guitars of Stills and Young made Buffalo Springfield a critical success, and their first record ''Buffalo Springfield'' (1966) sold well after Stills' topical song "For What It's Worth" became a hit, aided by Young's melodic harmonics played on electric guitar.

Distrust of their management, as well as the arrest and deportation of Palmer, exacerbated the already strained relations among the group members and led to Buffalo Springfield's demise. A second album, ''Buffalo Springfield Again'', was released in late 1967, but two of Young’s three contributions were solo tracks recorded apart from the rest of the group.

In many ways, these three songs – "Mr. Soul," "Expecting To Fly," and "Broken Arrow" – on ''Buffalo Springfield Again'' are harbingers of much of Young's later work in that, although they all share deeply personal, almost idiosyncratic lyrics, they also present three very different musical approaches to the arrangement of what is essentially an original folk song. "Mr Soul" is the only Young song of the three that all five members of the group performed together. In contrast, "Broken Arrow" was confessional folk-rock of a kind that would characterize much of the music that emerged from the singer-songwriter movement. Young’s experimental production intersperses each verse with snippets of sound from other sources, including opening the song with a sound bite of Dewey Martin singing "Mr. Soul" and closing it with the thumping of a heartbeat. "Expecting to Fly" was a lushly produced ballad similar to the baroque pop of the mid-1960s, featured a string arrangement that Young's co-producer for the track, Jack Nitzsche, would dub "symphonic pop."

In May 1968, the band split up for good, but in order to fulfill a contractual obligation, a final album ''Last Time Around'' was released, primarily from recordings made earlier that year. Young contributed the songs "On the Way Home" and "I Am a Child", singing lead on the latter. In 1997, the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; Young did not appear at the ceremony. The three surviving members; Furay, Stills and Young appeared together as Buffalo Springfield at Young's annual Bridge School Benefit on 23–24 October 2010 and are planning a reunion tour for late 2011.

Crazy Horse & CSNY (1968–1970)

:''Main articles: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Crazy Horse'' After the breakup of Buffalo Springfield, Young signed a solo deal with Reprise Records, home of his colleague and friend Joni Mitchell, with whom he shared a manager, Elliot Roberts, who manages Young to this day. Young and Roberts immediately began work on Young's first solo record, ''Neil Young'' (November 1968), which received mixed reviews. In a 1970 interview, Young deprecated the album as being "overdubbed rather than played," and the quest for music that expresses the spontaneity of the moment has long been a feature of his career. Nevertheless, the album contains some songs that remain a staple of his live shows, most notably "The Loner".

For his next album, Young recruited three musicians from a band called The Rockets: Danny Whitten on guitar, Billy Talbot on bass guitar, and Ralph Molina on drums. These three took the name Crazy Horse (after the historical figure of the same name), and ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'' (May 1969), is credited to "Neil Young with Crazy Horse." Recorded in just two weeks, the album opens with one of Young's most familiar songs, "Cinnamon Girl," and is dominated by two more, "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "Down by the River," that feature lengthy jams showcasing Young's idiosyncratic guitar soloing accompanied sympathetically by Crazy Horse. Young reportedly wrote all three songs on the same day, while nursing a high fever of in bed.

Shortly after the release of ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'', Young reunited with Stephen Stills by joining Crosby, Stills, & Nash, who had already released one album as a trio. Young was originally offered a position as a sideman, but agreed to join only if he received full membership, and the group – winners of the 1969 "Best New Artist" Grammy Award – was renamed Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The quartet debuted in Chicago on August 16, 1969, and later performed at the famous Woodstock Festival, during which Young skipped the acoustic set and refused to be filmed during the electric set, even telling the cameramen: "One of you fuckin' guys comes near me and I'm gonna fuckin' hit you with my guitar". During the making of their first album, ''Déjà Vu'', the musicians frequently argued, particularly Young and Stills, who both fought for control. Stills continued throughout their lifelong relationship to criticize Young, saying that he "wanted to play folk music in a rock band". Despite the tension, Young's tenure with CSN&Y; coincided with the band's most creative and successful period, and greatly contributed to his subsequent success as a solo artist.

"Ohio" was written following the Kent State massacre on May 4, 1970, and was a staple of anti-war rallies in the 1970s. The song was quickly recorded by CSNY and immediately released as a single, even though CSNY's "Teach Your Children" was still climbing the singles charts. In the late 1970s and for much of the 1980s, Young refrained from performing "Ohio" live, as he considered the song to be dated. In the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Young revived the song in concert, often dedicating it to the Chinese students who were killed in the massacre. Crosby, Stills & Nash, as a trio, also returned the song to their live repertoire around the same time, even though Young had provided the lead vocals on the original recording.

Also that year, Young released his third solo album, ''After the Gold Rush'' (1970), which featured, among others, a young Nils Lofgren, Stephen Stills, and CSNY bassist Greg Reeves. Young also recorded some tracks with Crazy Horse, but dismissed them early in the sessions. Aided by his newfound fame with CSNY, the album was a commercial breakthrough for Young and contains some of his best known work. Notable tracks include the title track, with dream-like lyrics that run a gamut of subjects from drugs and interpersonal relationships to environmental concerns, as well as Young’s controversial and acerbic condemnation of racism in "Southern Man", which, along with a later song entitled "Alabama," later prompted Lynyrd Skynyrd to decry Young by name in the lyrics to "Sweet Home Alabama". Despite appearances to the contrary, the rivalry between Young and Skynyrd front man Ronnie Van Zant was a friendly one, with Van Zant famously photographed wearing a ''Tonight's the Night'' t-shirt on the cover of the band's 1977 album ''Street Survivors''.

Fourth solo album: ''Harvest'' (1971–1972)

With CSNY splitting up and Crazy Horse having signed their own record deal, Young began the year 1971 with a solo tour entitled "Journey Through the Past." Later, he recruited a new group of country-music session musicians (including Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor), whom he christened The Stray Gators, to record much of the new material which had been premiered on the preceding tour; the result was the album ''Harvest'' (1972). ''Harvest'' was a massive hit and "Heart of Gold" became a US number one single. It remains the only No. 1 hit in his long career.

Another notable song was "The Needle and the Damage Done", a somber lament on the pain caused by heroin addiction, inspired in part by the heavy heroin use of Crazy Horse member Danny Whitten, who eventually died of an overdose.

The album's success caught Young off guard, and his first instinct was to back away from stardom. In the handwritten liner notes to the ''Decade'' compilation, Young famously described "Heart of Gold" as the song that "put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there."

On September 8, 1972, the actress Carrie Snodgress, with whom he had been living, gave birth to Neil Young's first child. The boy, Zeke, was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Young fell in love with Snodgress after seeing her in a movie, ''Diary of a Mad Housewife'', on television; Young wrote about this experience in the song "A Man Needs a Maid" (from the ''Harvest'' album), featuring the lyric "I fell in love with the actress/she was playing a part that I could understand."

The Ditch Trilogy (1972–1974)

Although a new tour had been planned to follow up on the success of ''Harvest'', it became apparent during rehearsals that Danny Whitten could not function due to drug abuse. On November 18, 1972, shortly after he was fired from the tour preparations, Whitten was found dead of an overdose. Young described the incident to ''Rolling Stone''’s Cameron Crowe in 1975: "[We] were rehearsing with him and he just couldn't cut it. He couldn't remember anything. He was too out of it. Too far gone. I had to tell him to go back to L.A. 'It's not happening, man. You're not together enough.' He just said, 'I've got nowhere else to go, man. How am I gonna tell my friends?' And he split. That night the coroner called me from L.A. and told me he'd OD'd. That blew my mind. I loved Danny. I felt responsible. And from there, I had to go right out on this huge tour of huge arenas. I was very nervous and ... insecure."

The album made in the aftermath of this incident, ''Time Fades Away'' (1973), has often been described by Young as "[his] least favorite record," and it is, in fact, one of only two of Young’s early recordings that has yet to be officially re-released on CD (the other being the soundtrack album ''Journey Through the Past''). The album was recorded live over a tour where Young struggled with his voice and called David Crosby and Graham Nash to help perform the music. The tour featured Linda Ronstadt as the opening act. ''Time Fades Away'' occupies a unique position in Young’s discography as the first of three albums known collectively as the "Ditch Trilogy".

In the second half of 1973, Young formed The Santa Monica Flyers, with Crazy Horse's rhythm section augmented by Nils Lofgren on guitar. Deeply affected by the drug-induced deaths of Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry, Young recorded ''Tonight's the Night''. The album's dark tone and rawness led Reprise to delay and Young had to pressure them for two years before they would release it. It received mixed reviews at the time, but is now regarded as a landmark album. In Young's own opinion, it was the closest he ever came to art.

While his record company delayed the release of ''Tonight's the Night,'' Young recorded ''On the Beach'' (1974), which dealt with themes such as the downside of fame and the Californian lifestyle. Like ''Time Fades Away'' and ''Tonight's the Night'', it sold poorly but eventually became a critical favorite, presenting some of Young's most original work. A review of the 2003 re-release on CD of ''On the Beach'' described the music as "mesmerizing, harrowing, lucid, and bleary".

Return to prominence (1975–1979)

After completing ''On the Beach'', Young reunited with ''Harvest'' producer Elliot Mazer to record another acoustic album, ''Homegrown''. Most of the songs were written after Young's breakup with Snodgress, and thus the tone of the album was somewhat dark. Though the album was entirely completed, Young decided to drop the album and release ''Tonight's the Night'' instead, at the suggestion of The Band bassist Rick Danko. Young further explained his move by saying: "It was a little too personal ... it scared me".

In 1976, Young performed with Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and numerous other rock musicians in the high profile all-star concert ''The Last Waltz'', the final performance by The Band. The release of Martin Scorsese's movie of the concert was delayed while Scorsese unwillingly re-edited it to obscure the lump of cocaine that was clearly visible hanging from Young's nose during his performance of "Helpless."

''American Stars 'N Bars'' (1977) contained two songs originally recorded for ''Homegrown'' album, "Homegrown" and "Star of Bethlehem," as well as newer material, including the future concert staple "Like a Hurricane". Performers included Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and Young protégé Nicolette Larson along with Crazy Horse. Also in 1977, Young released ''Decade'': a personally selected career summary of material spanning every aspect of his various interests and affiliations, including a handful of unreleased songs. ''Comes a Time'' (1978) also featured Nicolette Larson and Crazy Horse and became Young's most commercially accessible album in quite some time, marked by a return to his folk roots. In 1978 much of the filming was done for Young's film ''Human Highway''. Over four years Young would spend $3,000,000 of his own money on production. This also marked the beginning of his brief collaboration with the band Devo.

Young next set out on the lengthy "Rust Never Sleeps" tour, in which each concert was divided into a solo acoustic set and an electric set with Crazy Horse. Much of the electric set was later seen as a response to punk rock's burgeoning popularity. "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" compared the changing public perception of Johnny Rotten with that of the recently deceased Elvis Presley, who himself had once been disparaged as a dangerous influence only to later become an icon. Rotten, meanwhile, returned the favour by playing one of Young's records on a London radio show. The accompanying albums ''Rust Never Sleeps'' (new material, culled from live recordings, but featuring studio overdubs) and ''Live Rust'' (a mixture of old and new, and a genuine concert recording) captured the two sides of the concerts, with solo acoustic songs on side A, and fierce, uptempo, electric songs on side B. A movie version of the concerts, also called ''Rust Never Sleeps'' (1979), was directed by Young under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey. Young worked with rock artist Jim Evans to create the poster art for the film, using the "Star Wars" Jawas as a theme.

Young was suddenly relevant again, and the readers and critics of ''Rolling Stone'' voted him Artist of the Year for 1979 (along with The Who), selected ''Rust Never Sleeps'' as Album Of The Year, and voted him Male Vocalist of the Year as well. The Village Voice, meanwhile, honored Young as the Artist of the Decade.

Experimental years (1980s)

The 1980s were often difficult times for Young, both personally and professionally. At the start of the decade, distracted by domestic medical concerns relating to his second disabled son, Ben, Young had little time to spend on writing and recording. After providing the incidental music to a 1980 biopic of Hunter S. Thompson entitled ''Where the Buffalo Roam'', Young released ''Hawks & Doves'', a short record pieced together from sessions going back to 1974. Young did not tour in support of either album; in total, he played only one show, a set at the 1980 Bread and Roses Festival in Berkeley, between the end of his 1978 tour with Crazy Horse and the start of his tour with the Trans Band in mid-1982.

The 1982 album ''Trans'', which incorporated vocoders, synthesizers, and electronic beats, was Young's first for new label Geffen Records (distributed at the time by Warner Bros. Records, whose parent Warner Music Group owns most of Young's solo and band catalog) and represented a distinct stylistic departure. Young later revealed that an inspiration for the album was the theme of technology and communication with his son Ben, who has severe cerebral palsy and cannot speak. An extensive tour preceded the release of the album, and was documented by the video ''Neil Young in Berlin'', which saw release in 1986.

Young's next album, 1983's ''Everybody's Rockin''', included several rockabilly covers and clocked in at less than twenty-five minutes in length. Young was backed by the Shocking Pinks for the supporting U.S. tour. ''Trans'' had already drawn the ire of label head David Geffen for its lack of commercial appeal, and with ''Everybody's Rockin''' following only seven months later, Geffen Records sued Young for making music "unrepresentative" of himself. The album was also notable as the first for which Young made commercial music videos – Tim Pope directed the videos for "Wonderin'" and "Cry, Cry, Cry". Also premiered in 1983, though little seen, was the eclectic full-length comedy film ''Human Highway'', co-directed and co-written by Young, and starring Young, Dean Stockwell, Russ Tamblyn, Dennis Hopper and members of Devo.

1984 was the first year without a Neil Young album since the start of Young's musical career with Buffalo Springfield in 1966. Young's lack of productivity was largely due to the ongoing legal battle with Geffen, although he was also frustrated that the label had rejected his 1982 country album ''Old Ways''. It was also the year when Young's third child, his second with wife Pegi was born; his daughter Amber Jean, a child who was later diagnosed with inherited epilepsy. Young spent most of 1984 and all of 1985 touring for ''Old Ways'' with his country band, the International Harvesters. The album was finally released in an altered form midway through 1985. Young also appeared at that year's Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, collaborating with Crosby, Stills and Nash for the quartet's first performance for a paying audience in over ten years.

Young's last two albums for Geffen were more conventional in genre, although they incorporated production techniques like synthesizers and echoing drums that were previously uncommon in Young's music. Young recorded 1986's ''Landing on Water'' without Crazy Horse, but reunited with the band for the subsequent year-long tour and final Geffen album, ''Life'', which emerged in 1987. Young's album sales dwindled steadily throughout the eighties; today ''Life'' remains his all-time-least successful studio album, with an estimated four hundred thousand sales worldwide.

Switching back to his old label Reprise Records, Young continued to tour relentlessly, assembling a new blues band called The Bluenotes in mid-1987 (a legal dispute with musician Harold Melvin forced the eventual rechristening of the band as Ten Men Working midway through the tour). The addition of a brass section provided a new jazzier sound, and the title track of 1988's ''This Note's For You'' became Young's first hit single of the decade. Accompanied by a video that parodied corporate rock, the pretensions of advertising, and Michael Jackson, the song was initially unofficially banned by MTV for mentioning the brand names of some of their sponsors. Young wrote an open letter, "What does the M in MTV stand for: music or money?" Despite this, the video was eventually named best video of the year by the network in 1989. By comparison, the major music cable network of Young's home nation, Muchmusic, ran the video immediately.

Young reunited with Crosby, Stills and Nash to record the 1988 album ''American Dream'' and play two benefit concerts late in the year, but the group did not embark upon a full tour. The album was only the second-ever studio record for the quartet.

Re-return to prominence (1990s)

Young's 1989 single "Rockin' in the Free World", which hit #2 on the U.S. mainstream-rock charts, and accompanying album, ''Freedom'', rocketed him back into the popular consciousness after a decade of sometimes-difficult genre experiments. The album's lyrics were often overtly political; "Rockin' in the Free World" deals with homelessness, terrorism, and environmental degradation, implicitly criticizing the government policies of President George H.W. Bush.

The use of heavy feedback and distortion on several ''Freedom'' tracks was reminiscent of the ''Rust Never Sleeps'' album, and foreshadowed the imminent rise of grunge. The rising stars of the genre, including Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, frequently cited Young as a major influence, contributing to his popular revival. A tribute album called ''The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young'' was released in 1989, featuring covers by alternative and grunge acts including Sonic Youth, Nick Cave, Soul Asylum, Dinosaur Jr, and the Pixies.

Young's 1990 album ''Ragged Glory'', recorded with Crazy Horse in a barn on his Northern California ranch, continued this distortion-heavy aesthetic. Young toured for the album with Orange County, California country-punk band Social Distortion and alternative rock pioneers Sonic Youth as support, much to the consternation of many of his old fans. ''Weld'', a two-disc live album documenting the tour, was released in 1991. Sonic Youth's influence was most evident on ''Arc'', a 35-minute collage of feedback and distortion spliced together at the suggestion of Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and originally packaged with some versions of ''Weld''.

1992's ''Harvest Moon'' marked an abrupt return to the country and folk-rock stylings of ''Harvest'' and reunited him with some of the musicians from that album, including singers Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor. The title track was a minor hit and the record was well received by critics, winning the Juno Award for Album of the Year in 1994. Young also contributed to Randy Bachman's nostalgic 1992 tune "Prairie Town," and garnered a 1993 Academy Award nomination for his song "Philadelphia", from the soundtrack of the Jonathan Demme movie of the same name. An ''MTV Unplugged'' performance and album emerged in 1993. Later that year, Young collaborated with Booker T. and the M.G.s for a summer tour of Europe and North America. Some European shows ended with a rendition of "Rockin' in the Free World" played with Pearl Jam, foreshadowing their eventual full-scale collaboration two years later.

In 1994 Young again collaborated with Crazy Horse for ''Sleeps with Angels'', a record whose dark, sombre mood was influenced by Kurt Cobain's death earlier that year; the title track in particular dealt with Cobain's life and death, without mentioning him by name. Cobain had quoted Young's lyric "It's better to burn out than fade away" (a line from "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)") in his suicide note, causing Young to then on emphasize the line "'cause once you're gone you can't come back" when performing the song. Young had reportedly made repeated attempts to contact Cobain prior to his death. Still enamored with the grunge scene, Young reconnected with Pearl Jam in 1995 for the live-in-the-studio album ''Mirror Ball'' and a tour of Europe with the band and producer Brendan O'Brien backing Young. 1995 also marked Young's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he was inducted by Eddie Vedder.

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Young's next collaborative partner was filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, who asked Young to compose a soundtrack to his 1995 black and white western film ''Dead Man''. Young's instrumental soundtrack was improvised while he watched the film alone in a studio. The death of longtime mentor, friend, and producer David Briggs in late 1995 prompted Young to reconnect with Crazy Horse the following year for the album and tour ''Broken Arrow''. A Jarmusch-directed concert film and live album of the tour, ''Year of the Horse'', emerged in 1997. From 1996–97 Young and Crazy Horse toured extensively throughout Europe and North America, including a stint as part of the H.O.R.D.E. Festival's sixth annual tour.

In 1998, Young renewed his collaboration with rock band Phish, sharing the stage at the annual Farm Aid concert and then at Young's Bridge School Benefit, where he joined headliners Phish for renditions of "Helpless" and "I Shall Be Released." Phish declined Young's later invitation to be his backing band on his 1999 North American tour.

The decade ended with the release in late 1999 of ''Looking Forward'', another reunion with Crosby, Stills and Nash. The subsequent tour of the United States and Canada with the reformed super quartet earned $42.1 million, making it the eighth largest grossing tour of 2000.

Renewed activism and brush with death (2000s)

Neil Young continued to release new material at a rapid pace through the first decade of the new millennium. The studio album ''Silver & Gold'' and live album ''Road Rock Vol. 1'' were released in 2000 and were both accompanied by live concert films. His 2001 single "Let's Roll" was a tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks, and the effective action taken by the passengers and crew on Flight 93 in particular. At the "America: A Tribute to Heroes" benefit concert for the victims of the attacks, Young performed John Lennon's "Imagine" and accompanied Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready on the song "Long Road", a Pearl Jam song that was written with Young during the ''Mirrorball'' sessions. "Let's Roll" was included on 2002's ''Are You Passionate?'', an album mostly composed of mellow love songs dedicated to Young's wife, Pegi, backed by Booker T & the MGs.

In 2003, Young released ''Greendale'', a concept album recorded with Crazy Horse members Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina. The songs loosely revolved around the murder of a police officer in a small town in California and its effects on the town's inhabitants. Young, under the pseudonym "Bernard Shakey", directed an accompanying film of the same name, featuring actors lip-synching to the music from the album. Young toured extensively with the ''Greendale'' material throughout 2003 and 2004, first with a solo, acoustic version in Europe, then with a full-cast stage show in North America, Japan, and Australia. Young began using biodiesel on the 2004 Greendale tour, powering his trucks and tour buses with the fuel. "Our Greendale tour is now ozone friendly,” Young said. “I plan to continue to use this government approved and regulated fuel exclusively from now on to prove that it is possible to deliver the goods anywhere in North America without using foreign oil, while being environmentally responsible.” Young spent the latter portion of 2004 giving a series of intimate acoustic concerts in various cities with his wife, who is a trained vocalist and guitar player.

In March 2005, while working on the ''Prairie Wind'' album in Nashville, Young was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. He was treated successfully with a minimally invasive neuroradiological procedure, performed in a New York hospital on March 29. Two days afterwards, Young passed out on a New York street from bleeding from the femoral artery, which surgeons had used to access the aneurysm. The complication forced Young to cancel his scheduled appearance at the Juno Awards telecast in Winnipeg, but within months he was back on stage, appearing at the close of the Live 8 concert in Barrie, Ontario on July 2. During the performance, he debuted a new song, a soft hymn called "When God Made Me". Young's brush with death influenced ''Prairie Wind'''s themes of retrospection and mortality. The album's live premiere in Nashville was immortalized by filmmaker Jonathan Demme in the 2006 film ''Neil Young: Heart of Gold''.

Young's renewed activism manifested itself in the 2006 album ''Living With War'', which was hastily recorded and released in less than a month. The album's overtly political songs rebuked U.S. President George W. Bush and the War in Iraq and included the provocatively titled "Let's Impeach the President". Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunited for the supporting "Freedom Of Speech Tour '06". ''CSNY Déjà Vu'', a concert film of the tour directed by Young was released in 2008, along with an accompanying live album.

While Young had never been a stranger to eco-friendly lyrics, themes of environmentalist spirituality and activism became increasingly prominent in his work throughout the 1990s and 2000s, especially on ''Greendale'' and ''Living With War''. The trend continued on 2007's ''Chrome Dreams II'', with lyrics exploring Young's personal eco-spirituality. Also in 2007, Young accepted an invitation to participate in ''Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino'', contributing his version of "Walking to New Orleans".

In 2008, Young revealed his latest project, the production of a hybrid-engine 1959 Lincoln called Lincvolt. A new album loosely based on the Lincvolt project, ''Fork in the Road'', was released on April 7, 2009. Unfortunately, the car caught fire in November, 2010, in a California warehouse, and along the way it burned an estimated $850,000 worth of Young's rock and roll memorabilia collection. Initial reports suggest the fire might have been triggered by an error in the vehicle's plug-in charging system. Young blamed the fire on human error and said he and his team were committed to rebuilding the car. "The wall charging system was not completely tested and had never been left unattended. A mistake was made. It was not the fault of the car," he said.

A Jonathan Demme concert film from a 2007 concert at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, called the ''Neil Young Trunk Show'' premiered on March 21, 2009, at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas. It was featured at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2009 and was released in the US on March 19, 2010 to critical acclaim.

Young's most recent album appearance was on the album ''Potato Hole'', released on April 21, 2009 by Memphis organ player Booker T. Jones, of Booker T. & the MG's fame. Young plays guitar on nine of the album's ten instrumental tracks, alongside Drive-By Truckers, who already had three guitar players, giving some songs on the album a total of five guitar tracks. Jones contributed guitars on a couple of tracks.

Young continues to tour extensively. In 2009, he headlined the Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England, at Hard Rock Calling in London (where he was joined onstage by Paul McCartney for a rendition of "A Day in the Life") and, after years of unsuccessful booking attempts, the Isle of Wight Festival in addition to performances at the Big Day Out festival in New Zealand and Australia and the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona.

Young was also the victim of an Internet hoax death in early 2011 triggered by the death of an English football player of the same name.

New performances (2010s)

On January 22, 2010, Young performed "Long May You Run" on the final episode of ''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien''. On the same night, he and Dave Matthews performed the Hank Williams song "Alone and Forsaken", for the ''Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief'' charity telethon, in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Young performed "Long May You Run" at the closing ceremony of the 2010 Olympic winter games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In May 2010, it was revealed Young had begun working on a new studio album produced by Daniel Lanois. This was announced by David Crosby, who said that the album "will be a very heartfelt record. I expect it will be a very special record." On May 18, 2010, Young embarked upon a North American solo tour to promote his then upcoming album, ''Le Noise'', playing a mix of older songs and new material. Although billed as a solo acoustic tour, Young also played some songs on electric guitars, including Old Black. Young is continuing his Twisted Road tour with a short East Coast venture during the Spring of 2011. Young also contributed vocals to the Elton John-Leon Russell album, "The Union", singing a beautiful second stanza in the track, "Gone to Shiloh", and providing backing vocals as well.

Young currently lives near La Honda, California on his Broken Arrow Ranch, named after one of his early Buffalo Springfield songs. The original 140-acre parcel was purchased in 1970 for $350,000 cash and has grown to thousands of acres.

Archives project

As far back as 1988, Young spoke in interviews of his efforts to compile his unreleased material and to remaster his existing catalog. The collection was eventually titled the Neil Young Archives Series. The first installment, entitled ''The Archives Vol. 1 1963–1972'', was originally planned for a 2007 release but was delayed, and released on June 2, 2009.

Three performances from the ''Performance Series'' of the archives were released individually before ''The Archives Vol. 1''. ''Live at the Fillmore East'', a selection of songs from a 1970 gig with Crazy Horse, was released in 2006. ''Live at Massey Hall 1971'', a solo acoustic set from Toronto's Massey Hall, saw release in 2007. ''Sugar Mountain - Live At Canterbury House 1968'', an early solo performance and, chronologically, the first disc in the performance series, emerged late in 2008.

In an interview in 2008, Neil Young discussed ''Toast'', an album originally recorded with Crazy Horse in San Francisco in 2000 but never released. The album will be part of the ''Special Edition Series'' of the Archives. No release date currently exists for ''Toast''. The album ''A Treasure,'' with live tracks from 1985 sessions with the International Harvesters, during a time when he was being sued by Geffen Records, was released in June 2011.

On July 14, 2009, Young's first four solo albums were reissued as remastered HDCD discs and digital downloads as discs 1–4 of the ''Original Release Series'' of the Archives.

Awards and recognitions

2011 Juno Awards Artist of the Year, Adult Alternative Album of the Year, and Allan Waters Humanitarian Award

2011 Grammy Awards Best Rock Song "Angry World" – Neil Young, songwriter

2010 Grammy Awards Best Art Direction On A Boxed/Special Limited Edition Package "Archives Volume One 1963-1973" – Neil Young, Gary Burden, Jenice Heo

Canadian Music Hall of Fame, 1982

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. First in 1995 for his solo work, with an induction speech given by Eddie Vedder, and again in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield.

As one of the original founders of Farm Aid, he remains an active member of the board of directors. For one weekend each October, in Mountain View, California, he and his wife host the Bridge School Concerts, which have been drawing international talent and sell-out crowds for nearly two decades with some of the biggest names in rock having performed at the event including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, The Who, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Waits, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Sir Paul McCartney and Dave Matthews. The concerts are a benefit for the Bridge School, which develops and uses advanced technologies to aid in the instruction of children with disabilities. Young's involvement stems at least partially from the fact that both of his sons have cerebral palsy and his daughter, like Young himself, has epilepsy.

Young was nominated for an Oscar in 1994 for his song "Philadelphia" from the film ''Philadelphia''. Bruce Springsteen won the award for his song "Streets of Philadelphia" from the same film. In his acceptance speech, Springsteen said that "the award really deserved to be shared by the other nominee's song." That same night, Tom Hanks accepted the Oscar for Best Actor and gave credit for his inspiration to the song "Philadelphia".

He was part owner of Lionel, LLC, a company that makes toy trains and model railroad accessories. In 2008 Lionel emerged from bankruptcy and his shares of the company were wiped out. At this time his status with Lionel is unknown, according to Lionel CEO Jerry Calabrese he is still a consultant for Lionel. He was instrumental in the design of the Lionel Legacy control system for model trains and it is believed he will continue to develop the system. Young has been named as co-inventor on seven U.S. Patents related to model trains.

Young has twice received honorary doctorates. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1992, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from San Francisco State University in 2006. The latter honour was shared with his wife Pegi for their creation of the Bridge School. In 2006, Young was given Manitoba's highest civilian honour, when he was appointed to the Order of Manitoba. In 2009, he was then given Canada's highest civilian honour, when he was appointed to the Order of Canada.

''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2000, ranked Young thirty-fourth in its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time, and in 2003, included five of his albums in its list of 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2000, Young was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2006, ''Paste'' magazine compiled a "Greatest Living Songwriters" list; Young was ranked second behind Bob Dylan. (While Young and Dylan have occasionally played together in concert, they have never collaborated on a song together, or played on each others' records). He ranked thirty-ninth on ''VH1's 100 Greatest Artist of Hard Rock'' that same year. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame explained that while Young has "avoided sticking to one style for very long, the unifying factors throughout Young’s peripatetic musical journey have been his unmistakable voice, his raw and expressive guitar playing, and his consummate songwriting skill."

Young's political outspokenness and social awareness influenced artists such as Blind Melon, Phish, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana. Young is referred to as "the Godfather of Grunge" because of the influence he had on Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder and the entire grunge movement. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam inducted Young into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, citing him as a huge influence. Young is cited as being a significant influence on experimental rock artists Sonic Youth, Jesse Marchant, and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. Yorke recounted of first hearing Young after sending a demo tape into a magazine when he was 16, who favourably compared his singing voice to Young's. Unaware of Young at that time, he bought ''After the Gold Rush'', and "immediately fell in love" with his work, calling it "extraordinary". Dave Matthews lists Neil Young as one of his favorite and most inspirational songwriters and covers his songs on occasion. The British Indie band The Bluetones named their number one debut album after the song "Expecting to Fly" (written by Young when still with Buffalo Springfield) and have covered the song while touring. Young also inspired Oasis singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher, with Gallagher covering "My My, Hey Hey (Into the Black)" on the live album ''Familiar to Millions''.

The Australian rock group Powderfinger named themselves after Young's song "Powderfinger" from Young's ''Rust Never Sleeps''. The members of the Constantines have occasionally played Neil Young tribute shows under the name Horsey Craze. While in Winnipeg on November 2, 2008 during the Canadian leg of his tour, Bob Dylan visited Young's former home in River Heights, where Young spent his teenage years. Dylan was interested in seeing the room where some of Young's first songs were composed.

Jason Bond, an East Carolina University biologist, discovered a new species of trapdoor spider in 2007 and named it ''Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi'' after Young, his favorite singer (a previous similar case was the dinosaur ''Masiakasaurus knopfleri'' named after the musician Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits).

In 2001, Young was awarded the Spirit of Liberty award from the civil liberties group People for the American Way. Young was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year on January 29, 2010, two nights prior to the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. In addition was also nominated for two Grammy Awards; Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance ("Fork In The Road") and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package ["Neil Young Archives Vol. I (1963–1972)"]. Young won the latter Grammy Award. In 2010, Young was ranked #26 in Gibson.com’s Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.

Juno Awards

{|class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Category ! Nominated work ! Result |- | rowspan=2 | 2011 || Artist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | Adult Alternative Album of the Year || ''Le Noise'' || |- | 2008 || Adult Alternative Album of the Year || ''Chrome Dreams II'' || |- | 2007 || Adult Alternative Album of the Year || ''Living With War'' || |- | rowspan=3 | 2006 || Adult Alternative Album of the Year || ''Prairie Wind'' || |- | Jack Richardson Producer of the Year || "The Painter" || |- | Songwriter of the Year || "The Painter", "When God Made Me", "Prairie Wind" || |- | rowspan=2 | 2001 || Best Male Artist || Neil Young || |- | Best Roots & Traditional Album – Solo || ''Silver & Gold'' || |- | 1997 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | rowspan=2 | 1996 || Best Rock Album || ''Mirror Ball'' || |- | Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | rowspan=3 | 1995 || Songwriter of the Year || Neil Young || |- | Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | Entertainer of the Year || Neil Young || |- | rowspan=2 | 1994 || Single of the Year || "Harvest Moon" || |- | Album of the Year || ''Harvest Moon'' || |- | rowspan=2 | 1993 || Songwriter of the Year || Neil Young || |- | Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1991 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1990 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1989 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1986 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1982 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1981 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1980 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1979 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1975 || Composer of the Year || Neil Young || |}

Instruments

Guitars

In 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' listed Young as eighty-third in its ranking of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time", describing him as a "restless experimenter...who transform[s] the most obvious music into something revelatory." Young is a collector of second-hand guitars, but in recording and performing, he frequently uses just a few instruments, as is explained by his longtime guitar technician Larry Cragg in the film ''Neil Young: Heart of Gold''. They include:

1953 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop. Nicknamed "Old Black", this is Young's primary electric guitar and is featured on ''Rust Never Sleeps'' and other albums. Old Black got its name from an amateur paintjob applied to the originally gold body of the instrument, sometime before Neil acquired the guitar in the late 1960s. In 1972, a mini humbucker pickup from a Gibson Firebird was installed in the lead/treble position. This pickup, severely microphonic, is considered a crucial component of Neil's sound. A Bigsby vibrato tailpiece was installed as early as 1969, and can be heard during the opening of "Cowgirl in the Sand" from ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere''.

Martin D-45. His primary steel-string acoustic guitar, used to write "Old Man" and many other songs. It was one of four instruments bought by Stephen Stills for himself and his band-mates in CSNY in order to celebrate their first full concert at the Greek Theater in 1969.

Martin D-28. Nicknamed "Hank" after its previous owner, Hank Williams. Hank Williams, Jr., had traded it for some shotguns; it went through a succession of other owners until it was located by Young's longtime friend Grant Boatwright. The guitar was purchased by Young from Tut Taylor. Young has toured with it for over 30 years. A story about the guitar and the song it inspired, "This Old Guitar," can be seen about 50 minutes into the film ''Neil Young: Heart of Gold''. It is Young's primary guitar for ''Prairie Wind''.

Vintage Martin D-18: Young used an old D-18 throughout his early days performing in coffee houses in Canada and on some early Buffalo Springfield work, before he received the D-45 from Stills. It can also be seen on unreleased footage from the Woodstock documentary, particularly on an exceptional acoustic duet of the Buffalo Springfield track "Mr. Soul" with Stills. The guitar has often been used to carry "dropped standard tuning" (DGCFAD) which Young often uses in concert. This allowed him to perform songs such as "Ambulance Blues" and "Don't let it Bring You Down" live without having to tune all 6 strings onstage.

Other notable (or odd) instruments played by Young include:

On CMT live he is shown playing with Phish in which he plays a Languedoc G2, Presumably that of Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio

Vagabond Travel Guitar, used for "Let's Impeach the President" on ''The Colbert Report''.

Taylor 855 12-string, used in the first half of ''Rust Never Sleeps''.

1927 Gibson Mastertone, a six-string banjo tuned like a guitar, used on many recordings and played by James Taylor on "Old Man."

Gretsch 6120 (Chet Atkins model). Before Young bought Old Black, this was his primary electric guitar during his Buffalo Springfield days.

Gretsch White Falcon. Young purchased a late 1950s model near the end of the Buffalo Springfield era; in 1969 he bought a stereo version of the same vintage guitar from Stephen Stills, and this instrument is featured prominently during Young's early '70s period, and can be heard on tracks like "Ohio," "Southern Man," "Alabama," "Words (Between the Lines of Age)," and "L.A.". It was Young's primary electric guitar during the ''Harvest'' era, since Young's deteriorating back condition (eventually fixed with surgery) made playing the much heavier Les Paul difficult. This particular White Falcon is the stereo 6137, in which the signal from the three bass strings is separated from the signal from the three treble strings. Young typically plays this guitar in this stereo mode, sending the separate signals to two different amps, a Fender Deluxe and either a Fender Tremolux or a low-powered Tweed Fender Twin. The separation of the signals is most prominently heard on the ''Harvest'' song "Words."

Gibson Flying V, on the ''Time Fades Away'' tour.

Fender Broadcaster, on the ''Tonight's the Night'' album and tour.

Reed organ

Young owns an Estey reed organ, serial number 167272, dating from 1885, which he frequently plays in concert and which was recently restored. The instrument and its restoration are documented in ''The Reed Society Quarterly'' (30.1: 6ff); a photograph of the instrument is on the cover.

Amplification

Young uses various vintage Fender Tweed Deluxe amplifiers. His preferred amplifier for electric guitar is the Fender Deluxe, specifically a Tweed-era model from 1959. He purchased his first vintage Deluxe in 1967 for $50 from the drummer of Crazy Horse, Ralph Molina, and has since acquired nearly 450 different examples, all from the same era, but he maintains that it's the original model that sounds superior and is crucial to his trademark sound. The Tweed Deluxe is almost always used in conjunction with a late-1950s Magnatone 280 (similar to the amp used by Lonnie Mack and Buddy Holly). The Magnatone and the Deluxe are paired together in a most unusual manner: the external speaker jack from the Deluxe sends the amped signal through a volume potentiometer and directly into the input of the Magnatone. The Magnatone is notable for its true pitch-bending vibrato capabilities, which can be heard as an electric piano amplifier on "See the Sky About to Rain". A notable and unique accessory to Young's Deluxe is the Whizzer, a device created specifically for Young, which physically changes the amplifier's settings to pre-set combinations. This device is connected to footswitches operable by Young onstage in the manner of an effects pedal.

Discography

:''See also the discographies for Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young''

See also

Music of Canada

Canadian rock

Notes

References

McKay, George (2009) "'Crippled with nerves": popular music and polio'. ''Popular Music'' 28:3, 341–365.

External links

Neil's Garage – Official website

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young official website

Sugar Mountain – a compilation of set lists from Neil Young's concert performances

Youngtown Rock and Roll Museum – Omemee, Ontario

Review of Crazy Horse at the Fillmore 1970

"Neil Young: Don't be Denied", PBS, ''American Masters'', TV documentary, 2009

Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:People from Toronto Category:Anti–Iraq War activists Category:Anti–Vietnam War activists Category:Buffalo Springfield members Category:Canadian activists Category:Canadian country guitarists Category:Canadian country rock musicians Category:Canadian country singers Category:Canadian film directors Category:Canadian folk guitarists Category:Canadian folk singers Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Canadian people of American descent Category:Canadian people of French descent Category:Canadian people of Irish descent Category:Canadian rock guitarists Category:Canadian rock singers Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:Canadian environmentalists Category:Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Category:Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young members Category:Juno Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:MusiCares Person of the Year Honorees Category:Lead guitarists Category:Musicians from Manitoba Category:Writers from Manitoba Category:Members of the Order of Manitoba Category:Crazy Horse (band) members Category:Musicians from Ontario Category:Writers from Ontario Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:People with epilepsy Category:People from Winnipeg Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees

ar:نيل يونغ br:Neil Young bg:Нийл Йънг ca:Neil Young cs:Neil Young cy:Neil Young da:Neil Young de:Neil Young el:Νηλ Γιανγκ es:Neil Young eo:Neil Young eu:Neil Young fa:نیل یانگ fr:Neil Young fy:Neil Young ga:Neil Young gl:Neil Young ko:닐 영 id:Neil Young it:Neil Young he:ניל יאנג ka:ნილ იანგი hu:Neil Young nl:Neil Young ja:ニール・ヤング no:Neil Young nn:Neil Young pl:Neil Young pt:Neil Young ro:Neil Young ru:Янг, Нил sc:Neil Young simple:Neil Young sk:Neil Young fi:Neil Young sv:Neil Young th:นีล ยัง tr:Neil Young uk:Ніл Янг zh:尼爾·楊

Name	Paul Le Mat
Birth date	September 22, 1945
Birth place	Rahway, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1973–present }}

Paul Le Mat (born September 22, 1945) is an American actor who first came to prominence in the 1973 film ''American Graffiti'', which won him the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actor.

Life

Le Mat was born to Matthew (1914–1963) and Paula Le Mat (1912–1990). He is of French, Scottish, English, Cuban, and Irish descent. He graduated from Newport Harbor High School in 1963, and, although he never received a degree, he attended various colleges in California.

A Vietnam veteran, Le Mat was awarded the National Defense Medal and Vietnam Service Medal.

He is married to Suzanne de Passe and they have three girls - Emileena (1980-), Ruby (1982-), and Angelica (1984-).

Career

Le Mat starred in the pilot episode of ''Firehouse'' in 1973. The same year, he appeared in ''American Graffiti'', a coming of age film about a group of friends in Modesto, California in the early 1960s. He played John Milner - a role that would earn him his first Golden Globe Award. The film went on to receive universal acclaim, and was a box office hit. Le Mat also starred in Floyd Mutrux's 1975 crime spree film ''Aloha, Bobby and Rose''. In 1977, he starred in Jonathan Demme's acclaimed comedy, ''Handle with Care'', which was later re-titled ''Citizens Band'', which saw him reunite with his ''American Graffiti'' co-star Candy Clark. Le Mat would reunite with Demme for 1980's ''Melvin and Howard'', in which he played the titular role of Melvin Dummar. The film was based upon the true story of a gas station attendant who claimed to be an heir of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, and won two Academy Awards. It was met with rave reviews from Pauline Kael and other top film critics, and Le Mat was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. In 1979, Le Mat reprised his role of John Milner in ''More American Graffiti''.

In 1982, Le Mat played the Donald E. Westlake character John Dortmunder in ''Jimmy the Kid'', opposite Gary Coleman in the role of Jimmy. He also provided the voice of Omar in the American release of the animated film ''Rock & Rule''. Le Mat starred in the made-for-TV movie ''The Burning Bed'' opposite Farrah Fawcett. The film was based on the true story of an abusive husband who drives his wife to drastic measures with his aggressive ways. Le Mat was awarded the second Golden Globe Award of his career for his role in the film. He would go on to star in other television films such as ''The Night They Saved Christmas'', ''Into the Homeland'' and ''Secret Witness''. He appeared in the TV miniseries ''On Wings of Eagles'', and in the film ''Puppet Master''. In the 1990s, Le Mat would continue to work on independent films and TV movies. He played Josiah Peale in ''Lonesome Dove: The Series'', and in the follow-up ''Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years''. He had a small role in the 1998 film ''American History X''. More recently, Le Mat starred in the film ''Stateside'' and in the TV film ''The Long Shot''.

Filmography

! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1973		Billy Dalzell	TV series; episode “Pilot”
1973	''American Graffiti''	John Milner	Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actor
1975	''Aloha, Bobby and Rose''	Bobby
1977		Spider
1979	''More American Graffiti''	John Milner
1980	''Melvin and Howard''	Melvin Dummar	Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1982		Mike
1982	''The Gift of Life''	Dwayne Sutton	Television film
1982	''Jimmy the Kid''	John Dortmunder
1983	''Rock & Rule''	Omar	Voice role
1983	''Strange Invaders''	Charles Bigelow
1984	''The Burning Bed''	Mickey Hughes	Television filmGolden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
1984	''The Night They Saved Christmas''	Michael Baldwin	Television film
1986		Jay Coburn	TV mini-series
1986	''Long Time Gone''	Nick Sandusky	Television film
1987	''P.K. and the Kid''	Kid Kane
1987	''Deadly Nightmares''	Jake Purly	TV series; episode “Doctor’s Orders”
1987		Earl Hubman
1987	''P.I. Private Investigators''	Detective Wexler
1987	''Into the Homeland''	Derrick Winston	Television film
1988	''Murder, She Wrote''	Carl Mattson / Luke Purdue	TV series; episode “Showdown in Saskatchewan”
1988	''Secret Witness''	Kurt	Television film
1988		Tom Bennett	TV series; episode "Appointment on Route 17"
1989	''Easy Wheels''	Bruce
1989		Alex Whitaker
1989	''Grave Secrets''	David Shaw
1989	''Veiled Threat''	Jack Purcell
1989	''Blind Witness''	Detective Mike Tuthill	Television fillm
1992	''The Ray Bradbury Theater''	Charlie	TV series; episode “The Jar”
1992	''In the Line of Duty: Siege at Marion''	Doug Bodrero	Television film
1992	''Woman with a Past''	Merle	Television film
1992	''Wishman''	Basie
1992	''Deuce Coupe''	Sheriff
1994	''Caroline at Midnight''	Emmet
1994	''Sensation''	Mitch Snyder
1995	''Deep Down''	Ray
1995	''Grace Under Fire''	The Stranger	TV series; episode “Memphis Bound”
1994-1995	''Lonesome Dove: The Series''	Josiah Peale	TV series; 16 episodes
1995-1996	''Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years''	Josiah Peale	TV series; 14 episodes
1998	''American History X''	McMahon
1999	''The Outfitters''	Robby
2000	''Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction''	Sheldon Ludovic
2001	''Big Bad Love''	Monroe
2004		Dori’s Internist
2004	''The Long Shot''	Guido Levits	Television film
2009	''Chrome Angels''	Elliot

References

External links

Official Site - http://www.paullemat.com

Category:1945 births Category:American film actors Category:Living people Category:People from Union County, New Jersey Category:American people of French descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Hispanic and Latino American people Category:American people of English descent Category:Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (television) winners

de:Paul Le Mat fr:Paul Le Mat it:Paul Le Mat he:פול לה מאט pt:Paul Le Mat sv:Paul Le Mat

name	Denzel Washington
birth date	December 28, 1954
birth place	Mount Vernon, New York,United States
birth name
occupation	Actor, screenwriter, director, producer
years active	1977–present
spouse	Pauletta Pearson (1983–present) }}

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, screenwriter, director and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, ''St. Elsewhere'', playing Dr. Philip Chandler for six years. He has received much critical acclaim for his work in film since the 1990s, including for his portrayals of real-life figures, such as Steve Biko, Malcolm X, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Melvin B. Tolson, Frank Lucas, and Herman Boone.

Washington, has received two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe awards, and a Tony Award. He is notable for winning the Best Supporting Actor for ''Glory'' in 1989; and the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2001 for his role in the film ''Training Day''.

Early life

Denzel Washington was born in Mount Vernon, near New York City, on December 28, 1954. His mother, Lennis "Lynne", was a beauty parlor-owner and operator born in Georgia and partly raised in Harlem. His father, Reverend Denzel H. Washington, Sr., a native of Buckingham County, Virginia, served as an ordained Pentecostal minister, and also worked for the Water Department and a local department store, S. Klein.

Washington attended grammar school at Pennington-Grimes Elementary School in Mount Vernon until 1968. When he was 14, his parents' marriage fell apart and his mother sent him to a private preparatory school, Oakland Military Academy, in New Windsor, New York State. "That decision changed my life," Washington later said, "because I wouldn’t have survived in the direction I was going. The guys I was hanging out with at the time, my running buddies, have now done maybe 40 years combined in the penitentiary. They were nice guys, but the streets got them." After Oakland, Washington next attended Mainland High School, a public high school in Daytona Beach, Florida, from 1970–71. Washington was interested in attending Texas Tech University: "I grew up in the Boys Club in Mount Vernon, and we were the Red Raiders. So when I was in high school, I wanted to go to Texas Tech in Lubbock just because they were called the Red Raiders and their uniforms looked like ours." Washington earned a B.A. in Drama and Journalism from Fordham University in 1977. At Fordham he played collegiate basketball as a freshman guard under coach P. J. Carlesimo. After a period of indecision on which major to study and dropping out of school for a semester, Washington worked as a counselor at an overnight summer camp, Camp Sloane YMCA in Lakeville, Connecticut. He participated in a staff talent show for the campers and a colleague suggested he try acting.

Returning to Fordham that fall with a renewed purpose and focus, he enrolled at the Lincoln Center campus to study acting and was given the title roles in both Eugene O'Neill's ''The Emperor Jones'' and Shakespeare's ''Othello''. Upon graduation he was given a scholarship to attend graduate school at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, where he stayed for one year before returning to New York to begin a professional acting career.

Career

Early work

Washington spent the summer of 1976 in St. Mary's City, Maryland in summer stock theater performing ''Wings of the Morning'', the Maryland State play. He also filmed a series of commercials in the Fruit of the Loom ensemble, as Grapes. Shortly after graduating from Fordham, Washington made his professional acting debut in the 1977 made-for-television film ''Wilma'' with his first Hollywood appearance in the 1981 film ''Carbon Copy''. Washington shared a 1982 Distinguished Ensemble Performance Obie Award for playing Private First Class Melvin Peterson in the Off-Broadway Negro Ensemble Company production ''A Soldier's Play'' which premiered November 20, 1981.

A major career break came when he starred as Dr. Phillip Chandler in the television hospital drama ''St. Elsewhere'' which ran from 1982 to 1988 on NBC. He was one of only a few African American actors to appear on the series for its entire six-year run. Washington also appeared in several television, film and stage roles such as the films ''A Soldier's Story'' (1984), ''Hard Lessons'' (1986) and ''Power'' (1986). In 1987 Washington starred as South African anti-apartheid political activist Steven Biko in Richard Attenborough's ''Cry Freedom'' for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 1989 Washington won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a defiant self-possessed ex-slave soldier in the film ''Glory''. Also that year he appeared in the film ''The Mighty Quinn'', and as the conflicted and disillusioned Reuben James, a British soldier who, despite a distinguished military career, returns to a civilian life where racism and inner city life leads to vigilantism and violence in ''For Queen and Country''.

1990s

1990, Washington starred as Bleek Gilliam in the Spike Lee film ''Mo' Better Blues''. In 1992, he starred as Demetrius Williams in the romantic drama ''Mississippi Masala''. Washington was reunited with Lee to play one of his most critically acclaimed roles as the title character of 1992's ''Malcolm X''. His performance as the black nationalist leader earned him another nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The next year he played the lawyer of a homosexual man with AIDS in the 1993 film ''Philadelphia''. During the early and mid 1990s, Washington starred in several successful thrillers, including ''The Pelican Brief'' and ''Crimson Tide'', as well as in comedy ''Much Ado About Nothing'' and alongside Whitney Houston in the romantic drama ''The Preacher's Wife''.

In 1998, Washington starred in Spike Lee's film, ''He Got Game''. Washington played a father serving a six year prison term who is propositioned by the warden to a temporary parole on the terms that he must convince his top-ranked high-school basketball player son (Ray Allen), into signing with the governor's alma mater, Big State. The film also marked the third time that Spike Lee and Washington worked on a film together.

In 1999, Washington starred in ''The Hurricane'' a film about boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter whose conviction for triple murder was overturned after he had spent almost 20 years in prison. A former reporter who was angry at seeing the film portray Carter as innocent despite the overturned conviction began a campaign to pressure Academy Award voters not to award the film Oscars. Washington did receive a Golden Globe Award in 2000 and a Silver Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival for the role.

He also presented the Arthur Ashe ESPY Award to Loretta Claiborne for her courage and appeared as himself in the end of ''The Loretta Claiborne Story'' film.

2000s

In 2000, Washington appeared in the Disney film ''Remember the Titans'' which grossed over $100 million at the United States box office.

When Washington won a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Movie in 2000, as he noted: "No African-American has won best actor in the Golden Globes since Sidney Poitier, until I did". That made him the first Black actor to win the award in 36 years.

He won an Academy Award for Best Actor in his next film, the 2001 cop thriller ''Training Day'' as Detective Alonzo Harris, a rogue Los Angeles cop with questionable law-enforcement tactics. Washington was the second African-American performer to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, the first being Sidney Poitier who happened to receive an Honorary Academy Award the same night that Washington won. Washington holds the record (five so far) for most Oscar nominations by an actor of African descent, along with Morgan Freeman since 2009.

After appearing in 2002's box office success, the health care-themed ''John Q.'', Washington directed his first film, a well-reviewed drama called ''Antwone Fisher'', in which he also co-starred.

Between 2003 and 2004, Washington appeared in a series of thrillers that performed generally well at the box office, including ''Out of Time'', ''Man on Fire'', and ''The Manchurian Candidate''. In 2006, he starred in ''Inside Man'', a Spike Lee-directed bank heist thriller co-starring Jodie Foster and Clive Owen, and ''Déjà Vu'' released in November 2006.

In 2006, Denzel worked alongside multi-talented Irish off-rock band The Script on their new project combining music and Hollywood. The hybrid of genres was critically acclaimed but didn't receive much mainstream attention due to a legal conflicts between The Script's record label and Denzel's studio commitments.

In 2007, he co-starred with Russell Crowe in ''American Gangster''. Washington directed and starred in the drama ''The Great Debaters'' with Forest Whitaker. Washington next appeared in the 2009 film ''The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3'', a remake of the '70s thriller ''The Taking of Pelham One Two Three'', directed by Tony Scott as New York City subway security chief Walter Garber opposite John Travolta.

Return to theater

Washington was last seen onstage in the summer of 1990 in the title role of the Public Theater's production of Shakespeare's ''Richard III'' and in 2005, after a 15-year hiatus, he appeared onstage again in another Shakespeare play as Marcus Brutus in ''Julius Caesar'' on Broadway. The production's limited run was a consistent sell-out averaging over 100% attendance capacity nightly despite receiving mixed reviews.

2010s

In February 2009, Washington began filming ''The Book of Eli'' a post-Apocalyptic drama set in the near future which was released in January 2010. Also the same year, he starred as a veteran railroad engineer in the action film ''Unstoppable'', about an unmanned, half-mile-long runaway freight train carrying a dangerous cargo. The film was directed by Tony Scott, and was the fifth collaboration between the two, after previous films ''Crimson Tide'' (1995), ''Man on Fire'' (2004), ''Déjà Vu'' (2006) and ''The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3'' (2009).

On June 13, 2010, Washington won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his role in the play ''Fences''.

Personal life

On June 25, 1983, Washington married Pauletta Pearson, whom he met on the set of his first screen work, the television film ''Wilma''. The couple have four children: John David (b. July 28, 1984), who signed a football contract with the St. Louis Rams in May 2006 and is currently playing with the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League (John David also played college football at Morehouse); Katia (b. November 1987), who is attending Yale University; and twins Olivia and Malcolm (Malcolm attends the University of Pennsylvania). In 1995, the couple renewed their wedding vows in South Africa with Archbishop Desmond Tutu officiating.

Washington is a devout Christian, and has considered becoming a preacher. "A part of me still says, ‘Maybe, Denzel, you’re supposed to preach. Maybe you’re still compromising.’ I’ve had an opportunity to play great men and, through their words, to preach. I take what talent I’ve been given seriously, and I want to use it for good.” In 1995 he donated 2.5 million dollars to help build the new West Angeles Church of God in Christ facility in Los Angeles.

Washington has served as the national spokesperson for Boys & Girls Clubs of America since 1993. As such, he has been featured in several public service announcements and awareness campaigns for the organization. In addition, he has served as a board member for Boys & Girls Clubs of America since 1995.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia named Washington as one of three people (the others being directors Oliver Stone and Michael Moore) with whom they were willing to negotiate for the release of three defense contractors that the group had held captive from 2003 to 2008.

On May 18, 1991, Washington was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Fordham University, for having "impressively succeeded in exploring the edge of his multifaceted talent". He also was awarded an honorary doctorate of humanities from Morehouse College on May 20, 2007..

In 2008, Washington visited Israel with a delegation of African American artists in honor of the Jewish state's 60th birthday.

In 2011, Washington received an honorary degree from the University of Pennsylvania, serving as the keynote speaker for commencement.

Filmography

! Year	! Film	! Role	! Notes
1977	'' Wilma''	Robert Eldridge	(television film)
1981		Roger Porter
		Martin Sawyer	(television film)
''''	Pfc. Melvin Peterson
	''The George McKenna Story''	George McKenna	(U.S. title – ''Hard Lessons'', television film)
	Arnold Billings	NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
1987	''Cry Freedom''	Steve Biko	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
	''''	Xavier Quinn
''For Queen and Country''	Reuben James	Festival du Film Policier de Cognac Award for Best Actor
	Pvt. Trip	Academy Award for Best Supporting ActorGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion PictureNAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion PictureKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
		Napoleon Stone
''Mo' Better Blues''	Bleek Gilliam
1991		Nicholas Styles
	''Mississippi Masala''	Demetrius Williams	NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
	Malcolm X	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActorMTV Movie Award for Best Performance - MaleNAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion PictureNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActorSilver Bear for Best Actor – 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorNominated—Academy Award for Best ActorNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
		Don Pedro of Aragon
''''	Gray Grantham	Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Male
	Joe Miller	Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo shared with Tom Hanks
		Lt. Commander Ron Hunter	NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion PictureNominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Performance - Male
''Virtuosity''	Lt. Parker Barnes
	Easy Rawlins
	''Courage Under Fire''	Lt. Colonel Nathaniel Serling	NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion PictureLone Star Film & Television Award for Best ActorSoutheastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
''''	Dudley
		Detective John Hobbes
''He Got Game''	Jake Shuttlesworth
''''	Special Agent Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard FBI
	''''	Lincoln Rhyme
''''	Rubin "Hurricane" Carter
	''Remember the Titans''	Coach Herman Boone	BET Awards#Acting
''''	Himself
2001	''[[Training Day''	Detective Alonzo Harris	Academy Award for Best ActorAmerican Film Institute Awards 2001
	''[[John Q''	John Quincy Archibald
	Dr. Jerome Davenport	Also Producer/DirectorBlack Reel Award for Best DirectorNAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion PictureProducers Guild of America Stanley Kramer AwardWashington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best DirectorNominated—Black Reel Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best DirectorNominated—Satellite Award for Best Director
2003		Police Chief Matthias Lee Whitlock
		John Creasy	Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
''''	Major Ben Marco
	''Inside Man''	Detective Keith Frazier
	Special Agent Doug Carlin
			Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture DramaNominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Performance - MaleNominated—MTV Movie Award for Best VillainNominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture DramaNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
''''	Melvin B. Tolson''
2009		Walter Garber
	''''	Eli	Also ProducerNominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor
	Frank Barnes
		Tobin Frost	Filming
	Brandon Scofield	Pre-production

References

External links

Denzel Washington at Moviefone.com

Category:1954 births Category:Actors from New York Category:African-American Christians Category:African American film actors Category:African American film directors Category:African American basketball players Category:African American television actors Category:American Christians Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American Pentecostals Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:Basketball players from New York Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners Category:Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:English-language film directors Category:Fordham Rams men's basketball players Category:Living people Category:Members of the Church of God in Christ Category:Obie Award recipients Category:People from Westchester County, New York Category:Point guards Category:Tony Award winners

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