Brett Leighton is a musician with some notability in Europe. His expertise is the organ and harpsichord.

Career

Leighton is Professor of Organ and Harpsichord at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz, Austria. He is featured on at least four CD releases including Orgel Landschaft Ober-Österreich II (1998), Brett Leighton an der West-Orgel in Taufkirchen/Pram (1998) Music for Organ and Zink (2005) and The World's Oldest Organ and he is a judge for the 2007 Paul Hofhaimer Prize of Austria. He was 1977 Student of the Year at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music (Sydney, Australia), where his teacher was David Rumsey. Brett Leighton has lived in Europe for over 30 years. Further organ studies took him to Anton Heiller and Michael Radulescu in Vienna (Wiener Musikhochschule, 1981), and harpsichord with Jean-Claude Zehnder in Basel and Ton Koopman in Amsterdam. His many prizes and awards include the prestigious Paul Hofhaimer Prize of the City of Innsbruck in 1979. Since then, Brett Leighton has been an active recitalist in Europe, Japan, Australia, Mexico and the USA. His repertoire spans almost all styles with an emphasis on historically researched performance practice. In addition, Leighton has played numerous first performances of contemporary organ works. He has broadcast and recorded CDs as soloist and in ensemble in Europe and Australia. In addition to teaching, Leighton is a regular performer at many European festivals and summer courses and has acted as consultant for the construction of new organs, especially in Austria.

Press

Concert reviews in Oberösterreichische Nachrichten: Apr. 13, 2005, Jun. 24, 2005, Oct. 13, 2006 (in German)

Concert announcement in Der Vinschger, calling his music "first-class and legendary" (in German)

Concert announcement in Österreich Journal, Sep. 3, 2003 (in German).

Concert announcement in La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, Jan. 22, 2005 (in Italian)

Concert announcement in El Diario Vasco, Apr. 25, 2006, calling Leighton "one of the great specialists of the baroque repertoire" (in Spanish).

References

Category:Living people Category:Austrian classical organists Category:Harpsichordists Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Sydney Conservatorium of Music alumni Category:Place of birth missing (living people)

Coordinates	39°46′5.88″N86°9′29.52″N
name	Tony Curtis
birth name	Bernard Schwartz
birth date	June 03, 1925
birth place	Bronx, New York, U.S.
death date	September 29, 2010
death place	Henderson, Nevada, U.S.
death cause	Cardiac arrest
nationality	American
education	The City College of New York
alma mater	The New School
years active	1948–2010
occupation	Actor
spouse	Janet Leigh(m. 1951–1962; divorced)Christine Kaufmann(m. 1963–1968; divorced)Leslie Allen(m. 1968–1982; divorced)Lisa Deutsch(m. 1993–1994; divorced)Jill Vandenberg(m. 1998–2010; his death)
Children	6, including Kelly Curtis, Jamie Lee Curtis }}

Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz on June 3, 1925 – September 29, 2010) was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama. In his later years, Curtis made numerous television appearances.

Although his early film roles were partly the result of his good looks, by the later half of the 1950's he became a notable and strong screen presence. He began proving himself to be a “fine dramatic actor,” having the range to act in numerous dramatic and comedy roles. In his earliest parts he acted in a string of "mediocre" films, including swashbucklers, westerns, light comedies, sports films, and a musical. However, by the time he starred in ''Houdini'' (1953) with his wife Janet Leigh, "his first clear success," notes critic David Thomson, his acting had progressed immensely.

He won his first serious recognition as a skilled dramatic actor in ''Sweet Smell of Success'' (1957) with co-star Burt Lancaster. The following year he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in another drama, ''The Defiant Ones'' (1958). Curtis then gave what many believe was his best acting, in a completely different role, the comedy ''Some Like It Hot'' (1959). Thomson calls it an "outrageous film," and it was voted the number 1 funniest film in history from a survey done by the American Film Institute. It costarred Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, and was directed by Billy Wilder. That was followed by Blake Edwards’ comedy ''Operation Petticoat'' (1959) with Cary Grant. They were both “frantic comedies,” and displayed "his impeccable comic timing." He often collaborated with Edwards on later films.

His most significant serious part came in 1968 when he starred in the true-life drama ''The Boston Strangler'', which some consider his "last major film role." The part reinforced his reputation as a serious actor with his "chilling portrayal" of serial killer Albert DeSalvo. He gained 30 pounds and had his face "rebuilt" with a false nose to look like the real DeSalvo.

Curtis was the father of actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis by his first wife, actress Janet Leigh.

Early life

Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx, New York, one of three sons of Emanuel Schwartz and Helen Klein. His parents were Hungarian Jewish immigrants from Mátészalka, Hungary. Hungarian was Curtis' only language until he was five or six, postponing his schooling. His father was a tailor and the family lived in the back of the shop — the parents in one corner and Curtis and his brothers Julius and Robert in another. His mother once made an appearance as a participant on the television show ''You Bet Your Life'', hosted by Groucho Marx. Curtis said, "When I was a child, Mom beat me up and was very aggressive and antagonistic." His mother was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. His brother Robert was also institutionalized with the same mental illness.

When Curtis was eight, he and his brother Julius were placed in an orphanage for a month because their parents could not afford to feed them. Four years later, Julius was struck and killed by a truck. Curtis joined a neighborhood gang whose main crimes were playing hooky from school and minor pilfering at the local dime store. Aged 11, a friendly neighbor saved him from what he felt would have led to a life of delinquency by sending him to a Boy Scout camp where he was able to work off his energy and settle down. He attended Seward Park High School. At 16, he had his first small acting part in a school stage play.

Curtis enlisted in the United States Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor and war was declared. After being inspired by Cary Grant's role in ''Destination Tokyo'' and Tyrone Power in ''Crash Dive'' (1943), he joined the Pacific submarine force. Curtis served aboard a submarine tender, the USS ''Proteus'' until the end of the Second World War. On September 2, 1945, Curtis witnessed the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay from his ship's signal bridge about a mile away.

Following his discharge from US Navy, Curtis attended City College of New York as a result of the G.I. Bill. He then studied acting at the The New School in Greenwich Village under the influential German stage director Erwin Piscator. Fellow contemporaries included Elaine Stritch, Walter Matthau, and Rod Steiger. While still at college, Curtis was discovered by Joyce Selznick, the notable talent agent, casting director, and niece of film producer David O. Selznick. He later claimed it was because he "was the handsomest of the boys."

In 1948, Curtis arrived in Hollywood aged 23. When he was placed under contract at Universal Pictures, he changed his name from Bernard Schwartz to Tony Curtis. The first name was from the novel ''Anthony Adverse'' and "Kurtz" from a surname in his mother's family. Although Universal Pictures taught him fencing and riding, in keeping with the cinematic themes of the era, Curtis admitted he was at first only interested in girls and money. Neither was he hopeful of his chances of becoming a major star. Curtis biggest fear was having to return home to the Bronx as a failure:

I was a million-to-one shot, the ''least'' likely to succeed. I wasn't low man on the totem pole, I was ''under'' the totem pole, in a sewer, tied to a sack.

Career

Curtis's uncredited screen debut came in ''Criss Cross'' (1949) playing a rumba dancer. In his second film, ''City Across the River'' (also in 1949), he was credited as "Anthony Curtis". Later, as "Tony Curtis", he cemented his reputation with breakthrough performances such as in the role of the scheming press agent Sidney Falco in ''Sweet Smell of Success'' (1957) with Burt Lancaster (who also starred in ''Criss Cross'') and an Oscar-nominated performance as a bigoted escaped convict chained to Sidney Poitier in ''The Defiant Ones''.

He did both screen comedy and drama, and became one of the most sought after stars in Hollywood. Curtis' comedies include ''Some Like It Hot'' (1959), ''Sex and the Single Girl'' (1964) and ''The Great Race'' (1965), and his dramas included playing the slave Antoninus in Stanley Kubrick's ''Spartacus'' (1960) co-starring Kirk Douglas and Sir Laurence Olivier, ''The Outsider'' (1961), the true story of WW II veteran Ira Hayes, and ''The Boston Strangler'' (1968), in which he played the self-confessed murderer of the film's title, Albert DeSalvo. The latter film was praised for Curtis' performance. He was also part of the all-star ensemble in Elia Kazan's 1976 drama ''The Last Tycoon''. Curtis was nominated for a Golden Globe for Supporting actor for his performance in Spartacus (1960) alongside co star Kirk Douglas.

Curtis appeared frequently on television; he co-starred with Roger Moore in the TV series ''The Persuaders!''. Later, he co-starred in ''McCoy'' and ''Vega$''. In the early 1960s, he was immortalized as "Stony Curtis," a voice-over guest star on ''The Flintstones''.

Throughout his life, Curtis enjoyed painting, and since the early 1980s, painted as a second career. His work commands more than $25,000 a canvas now. In the last years of his life, he concentrated on painting rather than movies. A surrealist, Curtis claimed "Van Gogh, [Paul] Matisse, Picasso, Magritte" as influences. "I still make movies but I'm not that interested in them any more. But I paint all the time." In 2007, his painting ''The Red Table'' was on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. His paintings can also be seen at the Tony Vanderploeg Gallery in Carmel, California.

Curtis spoke of his disappointment at never being awarded an Oscar. In March 2006, Curtis received the Sony Ericsson Empire Lifetime Achievement Award. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and received the ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) from France in 1995.

Personal life

Marriages and children

Curtis was married five times. His first wife was actress Janet Leigh, to whom he was married from 1951 to 1962, and with whom he fathered actresses Kelly and Jamie Lee Curtis. "For a while, we were Hollywood's golden couple," he said. "I was very dedicated and devoted to Janet, and on top of my trade, but in her eyes that goldenness started to wear off. I realized that whatever I was, I wasn't enough for Janet. That hurt me a lot and broke my heart."

The studio he was under contract with, Universal-International, generally stayed out of their stars' love lives. However, when they chose to get married, studio executives spent three days trying to talk him out of it, telling him he would be "poisoning himself at the box office." They threatened "banishment" back to the Bronx and the end of his budding career. In response, Curtis and Leigh decided to defy the studio heads and instead eloped and were married by a local judge in Greenwich Connecticut. Comedian and close friend Jerry Lewis came as a witness.

It was Leigh's third marriage. They divorced in 1962, and in 1963, Curtis married Christine Kaufmann, the 17-year old German co-star of his latest film, ''Taras Bulba.'' He stated that his marriage with Leigh had effectively ended "a year earlier". They had two daughters, Alexandra (born July 19, 1964) and Allegra (born July 11, 1966). They divorced in 1968. Kaufmann resumed her career, which she had interrupted during her marriage.

Curtis was also married to:

Leslie Allen (April 20, 1968 – 1982); divorced, two sons: Nicholas Curtis (1970-1994) and Benjamin Curtis (born May 2, 1973)

Lisa Deutsch (February 28, 1993 – 1994); divorced

Jill Vandenberg Curtis (November 6, 1998 – September 29, 2010; his death)

His last wife was 42 years his junior. They met in a restaurant in 1993 and married in 1998. "The age gap doesn't bother us. We laugh a lot. My body is functioning and everything is good. She's the sexiest woman I've ever known. We don't think about time. I don't use Viagra either. There are 50 ways to please your lover."

His son Nicholas (December 31, 1970 — April 2, 1994, with Leslie Allen) died of a heroin overdose at the age of 23. On his son's death, Curtis remarked, "You never get over that. The death of a child. No. Can't talk about it," and that it's "a terrible thing when a father loses his son."

According to the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, Curtis, who had a problem with alcoholism and drug abuse, went though the treatment center of the Betty Ford Clinic in the mid 1980s, which was successful for him.

Philanthropy

Beginning in 1990, Curtis and his daughter Jamie Lee Curtis took a renewed interest in their family's Hungarian-Jewish heritage, and helped finance the rebuilding of the "Great Synagogue" in Budapest, Hungary.(photo) The largest synagogue in Europe today, it was originally built in 1859 and suffered damage during World War II. In 1998, he also founded the Emanuel Foundation for Hungarian Culture, and served as honorary chairperson. The organization works for the restoration and preservation of synagogues and 1300 Jewish cemeteries in Hungary. He dedicated this to the 600,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust in Hungary and lands occupied by the Hungarian Army. He also helped promote Hungary's national image in commercials.

Books and appearances

In 1994, a mural featuring his likeness, painted by the artist George Sportelli, was unveiled on the Sunset Boulevard overpass of the Hollywood Freeway Highway 101 in California.

In 2004, he was inducted into the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Hall of Fame. A street is named after him in the Sun City Anthem development in Henderson, Nevada.

In 2008, he was featured in the documentary ''The Jill & Tony Curtis Story'' about his efforts with his wife to rescue horses from slaughterhouses.

In October 2008, Curtis's autobiography ''American Prince: A Memoir'', was published. In it, he describes his encounters with other Hollywood legends of the time including Frank Sinatra and James Dean, as well as his hard-knock childhood and path to success. It was followed by the publication of his next book, ''The Making of Some Like it Hot: My Memories of Marilyn Monroe and the Classic American Movie'' (2009). Curtis shared his memories of the making of the movie, in particular about Marilyn Monroe, whose antics and attitude on the set made everyone miserable.

On May 22, 2009, Curtis apologized to the BBC radio audience after he used three profanities in a six-minute interview with BBC presenter William Crawley. The presenter also apologized to the audience for Curtis's "Hollywood realism". Curtis explained that he thought the interview was being taped, when it was in fact live.

Later years and death

In 1984 Curtis was rushed to hospital suffering from advanced cirrhosis as a result of his alcoholism and cocaine addiction. He then entered the Betty Ford Clinic and vowed to overcome his "various illnesses". He underwent heart bypass surgery in 1994.

Curtis nearly died when he contracted pneumonia in December 2006 and was in a coma for several days. As a result he used a wheelchair and could only walk short distances.

On July 8, 2010, Curtis, who suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), was hospitalized in Las Vegas after suffering an asthma attack during a book signing engagement in Henderson, Nevada at Costco.

Curtis died at his Henderson, Nevada home on September 29, 2010, of a cardiac arrest. In a release to the Associated Press, his daughter, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, stated:

"My father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages. He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in-laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world. He will be greatly missed."

He was interred at Palm Memorial Park Cemetery in Green Valley, Nevada on October 4, 2010. His memorial service was attended by his daughters, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ron Jeremy, Rich Little, and Vera Goulet, Robert Goulet's widow. Investor Kirk Kerkorian, actor Kirk Douglas and singer Phyllis McGuire were among the honorary pallbearers.

Filmography

''Criss Cross'' (1949)

''City Across the River'' (1949)

''The Lady Gambles'' (1949)

''Take One False Step'' (1949) (scenes deleted)

''Johnny Stool Pigeon'' (1949)

''How to Smuggle a Hernia Across the Border'' (1949) (short subject)

''Woman in Hiding'' (1950)

''Francis'' (1950)

''I Was a Shoplifter'' (1950)

''Sierra'' (1950)

''Winchester '73'' (1950) (Credited as Anthony Curtis)

''Kansas Raiders'' (1950)

''The Prince Who Was a Thief'' (1951)

''Meet Danny Wilson'' (1952) (cameo)

''Flesh and Fury'' (1952)

''No Room for the Groom'' (1952)

''Son of Ali Baba'' (1952)

''Houdini'' (1953)

''The All-American'' (1953)

''Forbidden'' (1953)

''Beachhead'' (1954)

''Johnny Dark'' (1954)

''The Black Shield of Falworth'' (1954)

''Six Bridges to Cross'' (1955)

''So This Is Paris'' (1955)

''The Purple Mask'' (1955)

''The Rawhide Years'' (1955)

''The Square Jungle'' (1955)

''Trapeze'' (1956)

''Mister Cory'' (1957)

''Sweet Smell of Success'' (1957)

''The Midnight Story'' (1957)

''The Vikings'' (1958)

''Kings Go Forth'' (1958)

''The Defiant Ones'' (1958)

''The Perfect Furlough'' (1958)

''Some Like It Hot'' (1959)

''Operation Petticoat'' (1959)

''Who Was That Lady?'' (1960)

''The Rat Race'' (1960)

''Spartacus'' (1960)

''Pepe'' (1960) (cameo)

''The Great Impostor'' (1961)

''The Outsider'' (1961), as Ira Hayes

''Taras Bulba'' (1962)

''40 Pounds of Trouble'' (1962)

''The List of Adrian Messenger'' (1963) (cameo)

''Captain Newman, M.D.'' (1963)

''Paris, When It Sizzles'' (1964) (cameo)

''Wild and Wonderful'' (1964)

''Goodbye Charlie'' (1964)

''Sex and the Single Girl'' (1964)

''The Great Race'' (1965)

''Boeing Boeing'' (1965)

''The Flintstones'' (1965) (voice)

''Chamber of Horrors'' (1966) (cameo)

''Not with My Wife, You Don't!'' (1966)

''Arrivederci, Baby!'' (1966)

''Don't Make Waves'' (1967)

''On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who...'' (1968)

''Rosemary's Baby'' (1968) (voice)

''The Boston Strangler'' (1968)

''Monte Carlo or Bust'' (1969)

''You Can't Win 'Em All'' (1970)

''Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?'' (1970)

''The Persuaders!'' (1971–1972)

''Mission: Monte Carlo'' (1974)

''Lepke'' (1975)

''The Count of Monte Cristo'' (1975)

''London Conspiracy'' (1976)

''The Last Tycoon'' (1976)

''Casanova & Co.'' (1977)

''Sextette'' (1978)

''The Manitou'' (1978)

''The Bad News Bears Go to Japan'' (1978)

''The Users'' (1978)

''Electric Light Orchestra'' ''Out of the Blue: Live at Wembley'' (1978)

''Double Take'' (1979)

''Title Shot'' (1979)

''Little Miss Marker'' (1980)

''It Rained All Night the Day I Left'' (1980)

''The Mirror Crack'd'' (1980)

''Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War'' (1980)

''Othello, the Black Commando'' (1982)

''Where Is Parsifal?'' (1983)

''BrainWaves'' (1983)

''The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal'' (1985) (documentary)

''Club Life'' (1985)

''Insignificance'' (1985)

''The Last of Philip Banter'' (1986)

''Balboa'' (1986)

''The Passenger - Welcome to Germany'' (1988)

''Lobster Man From Mars'' (1989)

''Midnight'' (1989)

''Tarzan in Manhattan'' (1989)

''Walter & Carlo In America'' (1989)

''Prime Target'' (1991)

''Center of the Web'' (1992)

''Hugh Hefner: Once Upon a Time'' (1992) (documentary)

''Naked in New York'' (1993)

''The Mummy Lives'' (1993)

''A Century of Cinema'' (1994) (documentary)

''The Immortals'' (1995)

''The Celluloid Closet'' (1995) (documentary)

''Roseanne'' - TV Series (1996) (role as Hal, ballroom dance studio instructor)

''Hardball'' (1997)

''Brittle Glory'' (1997)

''Elvis Meets Nixon'' (1997)

''Alien X Factor'' (1997)

''Stargames'' (1998)

''Louis & Frank'' (1998)

''Play It to the Bone'' (1999) (cameo)

''Reflections of Evil'' (2002) (narrator)

''Where's Marty?'' (2006)

''The Blacksmith and the Carpenter'' (2007) (voice)

''David & Fatima'' (2008)

''The Jill & Tony Curtis Story'' (2008) (documentary feature)

References

Further reading

The book includes Tony Curtis's prose, poetry, and artwork.

External links

CBS news: Tony Curtis 1925-2010 video: 1.5 minutes

Biography and naval service from the California Center for Military History website

Tony Curtis' Famous Friends - slideshow by ''Life magazine''

2009 interview with Dodd Vickers for the Magic Newswire

2007 interview by Nick Thomas in ''Nevada Magazine''

Tony Curtis and Nehemiah Persoff talk about ''Some Like it Hot''

John Patterson, "Some like it very hot", ''The Guardian'', 18 April 2008

Alison Jackson, ''Some tormented Hollywood souls still like their gossip hot, Profile: Tony Curtis,'' ''Sunday Times'', 20 April 2008

Documentary film, ''The Jill & Tony Curtis Story''

Photographs and literature

Tony Curtis: Life and Times - slideshow by ''Life magazine''

''The Telegraph'' obituary

Interview by Michael Hainey for ''GQ Magazine''

Category:1925 births Category:2010 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:Actors from California Category:Actors from Nevada Category:Actors from New York City Category:American activists Category:American people of Hungarian descent Category:American film actors Category:American Jews Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Category:American television actors Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in Nevada Category:Deaths from heart failure Category:Jewish activists Category:Jewish actors Category:American Jews Category:People from the Bronx Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:Writers from California Category:Writers from Nevada Category:Writers from New York City Category:United States Navy sailors

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Coordinates	39°46′5.88″N86°9′29.52″N
name	Jules Gabriel Verne
birth name	Jules Gabriel Verne
birth date	February 08, 1828
birth place	Nantes, France
death date	March 24, 1905
death place	Amiens, France
occupation	Author
language	French
nationality	French
genre	Science-fiction
notableworks	''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'', ''A Journey to the Center of the Earth'', ''Around the World in Eighty Days'', ''The Mysterious Island''
spouse	Honorine Hebe du Fraysse de Viane (Morel) Verne
children	Michel Verne and step-daughters Valentine and Suzanne Morel
influences	Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Józef Sękowski, Edgar Allan Poe, James Fenimore Cooper, Jacques Arago, Daniel Defoe, Johann David Wyss, George Sand, Erckmann-Chatrian, Adolphe d'Ennery
influenced	H.G. Wells, Hugo Gernsback, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Donald G. Payne, Steampunk, Emilio Salgari, Paschal Grousset,
signature	Firma de Julio Verne.svg
portaldisp	}}

Jules Gabriel Verne (; February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905) was a French author who pioneered the science-fiction genre. He is best known for his novels ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'' (1870), ''A Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (1864), and ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' (1873). Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before air travel and practical submarines were invented, and before practical means of space travel had been devised. He is the second most translated individual author in the world, according to Index Translationum. Some of his books have also been made into live-action and animated films and television shows. Verne, along with Hugo Gernsback and H. G. Wells, is often popularly referred to as the "Father of Science Fiction".

Early life

Jules Gabriel Verne was born in Nantes, Brittany () in France, to Pierre Verne, an attorney, and his wife, Sophie Allote de la Fuÿe. Jules spent his early years at home with his parents in the bustling harbor city of Nantes. The family spent summers in a country house just outside the city, in Brains on the banks of the Loire River. Here Jules and his brother Paul would often rent a boat for a Franc a day. The sight of the many ships navigating the river sparked Jules's imagination, as he describes in the autobiographical short story "Souvenirs d'Enfance et de Jeunesse". At the age of nine, Jules and Paul, of whom he was very fond, were sent to boarding school at the Saint Donatien College (Petit séminaire de Saint-Donatien). As a child, he developed a great interest in travel and exploration, a passion he showed as a writer of adventure stories and science fiction. His interest in writing often cost him progress in other subjects.

At the boarding school, Verne studied Latin, which he used in his short story "Le Mariage de Monsieur Anselme des Tilleuls" in the mid 1850s. One of his teachers may have been the French inventor Brutus de Villeroi, professor of drawing and mathematics at the college in 1842, and who later became famous for creating the US Navy's first submarine, the USS ''Alligator''. De Villeroi may have inspired Verne's conceptual design for the Nautilus in ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'', although no direct exchanges between the two men have been recorded.

Verne's second French biographer, his grand-niece Marguerite Allotte de la Fuÿe, formulated the rumor that Verne was so fascinated with adventure at an early age that he stowed away on a ship bound for the West Indies, but that Jules's voyage was cut short when he found his father waiting for him at the next port.

Literary debut

After completing his studies at the ''lycée'', Verne went to Paris to study for the bar. Around 1848, in conjunction with Michel Carré, he began writing libretti for operettas. For some years, his attentions were divided between the theatre and work, but some travelers' stories which he wrote for the ''Musée des familles'' revealed to him his true talent: the telling of delightfully extravagant voyages and adventures to which cleverly prepared scientific and geographical details lent an air of verisimilitude.

When Verne's father discovered that his son was writing rather than studying law, he promptly withdrew his financial support. Verne was forced to support himself as a stockbroker, which he hated despite being somewhat successful at it. During this period, he met Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, père, who offered him writing advice.

Verne also met Honorine de Viane Morel, a widow with two daughters. They were married on January 10, 1857. With her encouragement, he continued to write and actively looked for a publisher. On August 3, 1861, their son, Michel Jules Verne, was born. A classic ''enfant terrible'', Michel would marry an actress over Verne's objections, had two children by his underage mistress, and buried himself in debts. The relationship between father and son did improve as Michel grew older.

Verne's situation improved when he met Pierre-Jules Hetzel, one of the most important French publishers of the 19th century, who also published Victor Hugo, George Sand, and Erckmann-Chatrian, among others. They formed an excellent writer-publisher team until Hetzel's death. Hetzel helped improve Verne's writings, which until then had been repeatedly rejected by other publishers. Hetzel read a draft of Verne's story about the balloon exploration of Africa, which had been rejected by other publishers for being "too scientific". With Hetzel's help, Verne rewrote the story, which was published in 1863 in book form as ''Cinq semaines en ballon'' (''Five Weeks in a Balloon''). Acting on Hetzel's advice, Verne added comical accents to his novels, changed sad endings into happy ones, and toned down various political messages.

From that point, Hetzel published two or more volumes a year. The most successful of these include ''Voyage au centre de la Terre'' (''Journey to the Center of the Earth'', 1864); ''De la Terre à la Lune'' (''From the Earth to the Moon'', 1865); ''Vingt mille lieues sous les mers'' (''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'', 1869); and ''Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours'' (''Around the World in Eighty Days''), which first appeared in ''Le Temps'' in 1872. The series is collectively known as "Voyages Extraordinaires" ("extraordinary voyages"). Verne could now live on his writings. But most of his wealth came from the stage adaptations of ''Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours'' (1874) and ''Michel Strogoff'' (1876), which he wrote with Adolphe d'Ennery. In 1867, Verne bought a small ship, the ''Saint-Michel'', which he successively replaced with the ''Saint-Michel II'' and the ''Saint-Michel III'' as his financial situation improved. On board the ''Saint-Michel III'', he sailed around Europe. In 1870, he was appointed as "Chevalier" (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur. After his first novel, most of his stories were first serialised in the ''Magazine d'Éducation et de Récréation'', a Hetzel biweekly publication, before being published in the form of books. His brother Paul contributed to ''40th French climbing of the Mont-Blanc'' and a collection of short stories – ''Doctor Ox'' – in 1874. Verne became wealthy and famous. According to the Unesco Index Translationum, Jules Verne regularly places among the top five most translated authors in the world.

Later years

On March 9, 1886, as Verne was coming home, his twenty-five-year-old nephew, Gaston, shot him with a gun. One bullet missed, but the second entered Verne's left leg, giving him a limp that would not be cured. The incident was hushed up by the media, and Gaston spent the rest of his life in an asylum.

After the deaths of Hetzel and his beloved mother Sophie Henriette Allotte de la Fruye in 1887, Jules began writing darker works. This may partly be due to changes in his personality, but an important factor is the fact that Hetzel's son, who took over his father's business, was not as rigorous in his corrections as Hetzel had been. In 1888, Jules Verne entered politics and was elected town councillor of Amiens, where he championed several improvements and served for fifteen years. In 1905, while ill with diabetes, Verne died at his home, 44 Boulevard Longueville (now Boulevard Jules-Verne). Michel oversaw publication of his novels ''Invasion of the Sea'' and ''The Lighthouse at the End of the World''. The "Voyages extraordinaires" series continued for several years afterwards in the same rhythm of two volumes a year. It has later been discovered that Michel Verne had made extensive changes in these stories, and the original versions were published at the end of the 20th century.

In 1863, Jules Verne wrote a novel called ''Paris in the Twentieth Century'' about a young man who lives in a world of glass skyscrapers, high-speed trains, gas-powered automobiles, calculators, and a worldwide communications network, yet cannot find happiness and comes to a tragic end. Hetzel thought the novel's pessimism would damage Verne's then-booming career, and suggested he wait 20 years to publish it. Verne put the manuscript in a safe, where it was discovered by his great-grandson in 1989. It was published in 1994.

Reputation in English-speaking countries

While Verne is considered in many countries such as France as an author of quality books for young people, with a good command of his subjects, including technology and politics, his reputation in English-speaking countries suffered for a long time from poor translation.

Characteristic of much of late 19th-century writing, Verne's books often took a chauvinistic point of view. The British Empire was notably portrayed in a bad light in ''The Mysterious Island'', as Captain Nemo was revealed to be an Indian nobleman fighting the British Empire, which had not been mentioned in ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea''. The first English translator of ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'' and ''From the Earth to the Moon, and a Trip Around It'', Reverend Lewis Page Mercier, working under a pseudonym, removed passages describing the political actions of Captain Nemo. However, such negative depictions were not invariable in Verne's works; for example, ''Facing the Flag'' features Lieutenant Devon, a heroic, self-sacrificing Royal Navy officer worthy of comparison with any written by British authors. Another example of a positive depiction of an Englishman is the brave and resourceful Phileas Fogg, the protagonist of ''Around the World in Eighty Days''.

Mercier and subsequent British translators also had trouble with the metric system that Verne used, sometimes dropping significant figures, at other times keeping the nominal value and only changing the unit to an Imperial measure. Thus Verne's calculations, which in general were remarkably exact, were converted into mathematical gibberish. Also, artistic passages and whole chapters were cut because of the need to fit the work in a constrained space for publication. (London author Cranstoun Metcalfe (1866–1938) translated most of Verne's work into English during the first half of the 20th century.)

For those reasons, Verne's work initially acquired a reputation in English-speaking countries for not being fit for adult readers. This, in turn, prevented him from being taken seriously enough to merit new translations, leading to those of Mercier and others being reprinted decade after decade. Only from 1965 on were some of his novels re-translated more accurately, but even today Verne's work has still not been fully rehabilitated in the English-speaking world.

Verne's works also reflect the bitterness France felt in the wake of defeat in the Franco-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871, and the loss of Alsace and Lorraine. ''The Begum's Millions'' (''Les Cinq cents millions de la Begum'') of 1879 gives a highly stereotypical depiction of Germans as monstrous cruel militarists. By contrast, almost all the protagonists in his pre-1871 works, such as the sympathetic first-person narrator in ''Journey to the Centre of the Earth'', are German.

Memorials

A restaurant built into the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France is named Le Jules Verne Restaurant. In June 1989, the Jules Verne Food Court opened at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in the West Midlands of England; however, it had closed by the mid 1990s due to disappointing trade.

Hetzel's influence

Hetzel substantially influenced the writings of Verne, who was so happy to finally find a willing publisher that he agreed to almost all changes that Hetzel suggested. Hetzel rejected at least one novel (''Paris in the Twentieth Century'') and asked Verne to significantly change his other drafts. One of the most important changes Hetzel enforced on Verne was the adoption of optimism in his novels. Verne was in fact not an enthusiast of technological and human progress, as can be seen in his works created before he met Hetzel and after Hetzel's death. Hetzel's demand for optimistic texts proved correct. For example, ''Mysterious Island'' originally ended with the survivors returning to the mainland forever nostalgic about the island. Hetzel decided that the heroes should live happily, so in the revised draft, they use their fortunes to build a replica of the island. Many translations are like this. Also, in order not to offend France's then-ally, Russia, the origin and past of the famous Captain Nemo were changed from those of a Polish refugee avenging the partitions of Poland and the death of his family in the January Uprising repressions to those of an Indian prince fighting the British Empire after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Bibliography

Verne wrote numerous works, most famous of which are the 54 novels comprising the ''Voyages Extraordinaires''. He also wrote short stories, essays, plays, and poems.

His very first and better known works include: ''A Voyage in a Balloon (Un Voyage en ballon, August 1851 as published in ''Musee des familles'').

''Five Weeks in a Balloon'' (''Cinq semaines en ballon'', 1863)

''Paris in the Twentieth Century'' (''Paris au XXe siècle'', 1863, not published until 1994)

''A Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (''Voyage au centre de la Terre'', 1864)

''From the Earth to the Moon'' (''De la Terre à la Lune'', 1865)

''The Adventures of Captain Hatteras'' (''Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras'', 1866)

''In Search of the Castaways'' or ''Captain Grant's Children'' (''Les Enfants du capitaine Grant'', 1867–1868)

''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'' (''Vingt mille lieues sous les mers'', 1870)

''Around the Moon'' (''Autour de la lune'', a sequel to ''From the Earth to the Moon'', 1870)

''A Floating City'' (''Une ville flottante'', 1871)

"Dr. Ox's Experiment" (''Une Fantaisie du Docteur Ox'', 1872)

''The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa'' (''Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais'', 1872 )

''The Fur Country'' (''Le Pays des fourrures'', 1873)

''Around the World in Eighty Days'' (''Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours'', 1873)

''The Survivors of the Chancellor'' (''Le Chancellor'', 1875)

''The Mysterious Island'' (''L'Île mystérieuse'', 1875)

"The Blockade Runners", (1876)

''Michael Strogoff'' (''Michel Strogoff'', 1876)

''Off on a Comet'' (''Hector Servadac'', 1877)

''The Child of the Cavern'', also known as ''Black Diamonds'' or ''The Black Indies'' (''Les Indes noires'', 1877)

''Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen'' (''Un Capitaine de quinze ans'', 1878)

''The Begum's Millions'' (''Les Cinq cents millions de la Bégum'', 1879)

''The Steam House'' (''La Maison à vapeur'', 1879)

''Tribulations of a Chinaman in China'' (''Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine''), 1879

''Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon'' (''La Jangada'', 1881)

''The Green Ray'' (''Le Rayon vert'', 1882)

''Kéraban the Inflexible'' (1883)

"Frritt-Flacc" (1884)

''The Vanished Diamond'' (''L’Étoile du sud'', 1884)

''The Archipelago on Fire'' (''L’Archipel en feu'', 1884)

''Mathias Sandorf'' (1885)

''Robur the Conqueror'' or ''The Clipper of the Clouds'' (''Robur-le-Conquérant'', 1886)

''Ticket No. "9672"'' (''Un Billet de loterie'', 1886 )

''North Against South'' (''Nord contre Sud'', 1887)

''The Flight to France'' (''Le Chemin de France'', 1887)

''Family Without a Name'' (''Famille-sans-nom'', 1888)

''Two Years' Vacation'' (''Deux Ans de vacances'', 1888)

''The Purchase of the North Pole'' (''Sans dessus dessous'', the second sequel to ''From the Earth to the Moon'', 1889)

''Mistress Branican'' (1891)

''The Carpathian Castle'' (''Le Château des Carpathes'', 1892)

''Claudius Bombarnac'' (''Claudius Bombarnac'', 1893)

''Propeller Island'' (''L’Île à hélice'', 1895)

''Facing the Flag'' (''Face au drapeau'', 1896)

''Clovis Dardentor'' (1896)

''The Sphinx of the Ice Fields'' or ''An Antarctic Mystery'' (''Le Sphinx des glaces'', a sequel to Edgar Allan Poe's ''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym'', 1897)

''The Mighty Orinoco'' (''Le Superbe Orénoque'', 1897)

''The Village in the Treetops'' (''Le Village aérien'', 1901)

''The Kip Brothers'' (''Les Frères Kip'',1902)

''Master of the World'' (''Maître du monde'', sequel to ''Robur the Conqueror'', 1904)

''Invasion of the Sea'' (''L’Invasion de la mer'', 1904)

''A Drama in Livonia'' (''Un Drame en Livonie'', 1904)

''The Lighthouse at the End of the World'' (''Le Phare du bout du monde'', 1905)

''The Chase of the Golden Meteor'' (''La Chasse au météore'', 1908)

''The Danube Pilot'' (''Le Pilote du Danube'', 1908)

''The Survivors of the "Jonathan"'' (''Les Naufragés du « Jonathan »'', 1909)

See also

Paschal Grousset

Karl May

Zane Grey

B. Traven

Emilio Salgari

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Osip Senkovsky

Oshikawa Shunro

Steampunk, a style that took inspiration from Verne.

References

Further reading

William Butcher, Arthur C. Clarke (Introduction) (2006). ''Jules Verne: The Definitive Biography''. ISBN 1-56025-854-3

Herbert R. Lottman (1997). ''Jules Verne: An Exploratory Biography''. ISBN 0-312-14636-1

Philippe Melot, Jean-Marie Embs (2005).''Le Guide Jules Verne''. Les Editions de l'Amateur, Paris.ISBN 2-85917-417-6

Françoise Schiltz (2011). ''The Future Revisited: Jules Verne on Screen in 1950s America''. Chaplin Books, Gosport. ISBN 0-9565595-2-2

:*Translated as

External links

Bibliography

Les Voyages Extraordinaires – list of Verne works Compiled by Dennis Kytasaari. Bibliography.

Sources

Jules Verne's works: text, concordances and frequency list

A Jules Verne Centennial 1905–2005: A selection of early Jules Verne books and illustrations at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries edited by Norman M. Wolcott.

Zvi Har'El's Jules Verne Collection, including the Jules Verne Virtual Library, online sources of 51 of Jules Verne's novels translated into eight languages.

The Jules Verne Collecting Resource Page, complete online sources, posters, cards, autographs, first edition covers, etc..

Biography

Biography of Jules Verne

Reviews

"Jules Verne: Father of Science Fiction?", John Derbyshire, ''The New Atlantis'', Number 12, Spring 2006, pp. 81–90. A review of four new Jules Verne translations from the "Early Classics of Science Fiction" series by Wesleyan University Press.

''Jules Verne: An Exploratory Biography'', by Herbert R. Lottman – a review.

Misc

The maps from the Voyages Extraordinaires, scans of all the maps that were included in the original editions of Jules Verne’s novels.

Category:French science fiction writers Category:Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees Category:French Roman Catholics Category:Operetta librettists Category:People from Nantes Category:Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Category:Roman Catholic writers Category:1828 births Category:1905 deaths Category:Maritime writers

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Coordinates	39°46′5.88″N86°9′29.52″N
name	Tanya Roberts
birth date	October 15, 1955
birth place	The Bronx, New York City, United States
birth name	Victoria Leigh Blum
yearsactive	1975–present
occupation	Actress
spouse	Barry Roberts (1974-2006) }}

Victoria Leigh Blum (born October 15, 1955), professionally recognized as Tanya Roberts, is an American actress best known for her role in as Julie Rogers on the fifth and final season of ''Charlie's Angels'' (1980-1981) and as Midge Pinciotti on ''That '70s Show'' (1998-2001).

She later headlined the films: ''The Beastmaster'', ''A View to a Kill'', and ''Sheena''. Roberts was groomed as a Hollywood sex symbol during the early 1980s.

Early life

Blum was born in The Bronx of Irish and Jewish descent. Her father was an ink pen salesman. Her parents divorced when she was a teenager. She lived with her mother in Toronto for several years, where she started formulating a photo portfolio and laying plans for a career. At age 15, she abandoned her studies to marry and lived for a while hitch-hiking across the United States, until her mother-in-law annulled the union.

She returned to New York City and became a fashion and cover model. After meeting a psychology student, Barry Roberts (while waiting in line for a movie), she proposed to him in a subway station and they were soon married. While Barry pursued a career as a screenwriter, she began to study at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen under the name Tanya Roberts.

Acting career

1970s

Her career began as a model in TV ads for Ultra Brite, Clairol and Cool Ray sunglasses. She played serious roles in the Off-Broadway productions, ''Picnic'' and ''Antigone''. She also supported herself as an Arthur Murray dance instructor. Her film debut was the 1975 thriller, ''Forced Entry''. This was followed in 1976 by ''The Yum-Yum Girls'', a comedy.

In 1977, as her husband was securing his own screenwriting career, the couple moved to Hollywood. The following year, Roberts participated in the drama, ''Fingers''. Roles in the 1979 cult-movie, ''Tourist Trap'', ''Racket'' and ''California Dreaming'' followed. Roberts was featured in several television pilots that were never picked up: ''Zuma Beach'' (a 1978 comedy); ''Pleasure Cove'' (1979); and ''Waikiki'' (1980).

1980s

In 1980, Roberts was chosen from some 2,000 candidates to replace Shelley Hack in the television series, ''Charlie's Angels'' (in what would be the last season of the series). She was featured on the February 9, 1981 cover of ''People'' magazine and afterward was offered more ambitious projects. In 1982, Roberts played Kiri in ''The Beastmaster''. She was featured in a nude pictorial in ''Playboy'' to help promote the movie, appearing on that issue's October 1982 cover.

In 1983, Roberts filmed the Italian-made, and little-known adventure, ''Paladini-storia d'armi e d'amori'' (''Paladins—the story of love and arms''; also released as ''Hearts and Armour''), based on the medieval novel, ''Orlando Furioso''. She played the role of Velda, a buxom secretary to private detective, Mike Hammer, in the television movie, ''Murder Me, Murder You''. The two-part pilot spawned the syndicated television series, ''Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer''. She declined to continue the role in the Mike Hammer series so she could work on her next project, ''Sheena: Queen of the Jungle''. The movie was a box office and critical disaster, garnering her a nomination for "Worst Actress" at the Razzie Awards.

Her subsequent appearance as Bond girl, Stacey Sutton, a well-educated and articulate geologist, in ''A View to a Kill'' (1985), which provided her a number of scenes with Roger Moore's James Bond. She again found herself nominated by the critics for a Razzie Award. Her career took a downturn. Later films in the 1980s included ''Body Slam'' (1987), an action movie set in the professional wrestling world; and ''Purgatory'', a movie about a woman wrongfully imprisoned in Africa.

1990spresent

In 1991, Roberts starred in the erotic thriller, ''Inner Sanctum'' (1991), alongside Margaux Hemingway. In 1992, she played Kay Egan in ''Sins of Desire''. She appeared on the cable TV series, ''Hot Line'', in 1994; and in the video game, ''The Pandora Directive'', in 1996.

In 1998, she took the role of Midge Pinciotti on the successful, long-running television sitcom, ''That '70s Show''. Roberts claimed to ''E! True Hollywood Story'' that she left the series in 2001 because her husband, Barry Roberts, had become terminally ill. Barry Roberts died in 2006. In 2008, Tanya Roberts wrote the foreword to the book, ''The Q Guide to Charlie's Angels''.

References

External links

Official website

Category:1955 births Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:Living people Category:People from the Bronx Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Jewish descent

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