A hero (heroine is usually used for females) (), in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. Later, ''hero'' (male) and ''heroine'' (female) came to refer to characters who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self sacrifice—that is, heroism—for some greater good of all humanity. This definition originally referred to martial courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence.

Stories of heroism may serve as moral examples. In classical antiquity, hero cults that venerated deified heroes such as Heracles, Perseus, and Achilles played an important role in Ancient Greek religion. Politicians, ancient and modern, have employed hero worship for their own apotheosis (i.e., cult of personality).

Etymology

Coined in English 1387, the word ''hero'' comes from the Greek "ἥρως" (''heros''), "hero, warrior", literally "protector" or "defender" the postulated original forms of these words being *, ''hērwōs'', and *, ''Hērwā'', respectively. It is also thought to be a cognate of the Latin verb ''servo'' (original meaning: to preserve whole) and of the Avestan verb ''haurvaiti'' (to keep vigil over), although the original Proto-Indoeuropean root is unclear.

According to the ''American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,'' the Indo-European root is ''*ser'' meaning "to protect". According to Eric Partridge in ''Origins,'' the Greek word ''Hērōs'' "is akin to" the Latin ''seruāre,'' meaning ''to safeguard''. Partridge concludes, "The basic sense of both Hera and hero would therefore be 'protector'."

Classical hero cults

Hero cults could be of the utmost political importance. When Cleisthenes divided the ancient Athenians into new ''demes'' for voting, he consulted the Oracle of Delphi about what heroes he should name each division after. According to Herodotus, the Spartans attributed their conquest of Arcadia to their theft of the bones of Orestes from the Arcadian town of Tegea.

Heroes in myth often had close but conflicted relationships with the gods. Thus Heracles's name means "the glory of Hera", even though he was tormented all his life by Hera, the Queen of the Gods. Perhaps the most striking example is the Athenian king Erechtheus, whom Poseidon killed for choosing Athena over him as the city's patron god. When the Athenians worshiped Erechtheus on the Acropolis, they invoked him as ''Poseidon Erechtheus''.

In the Hellenistic Greek East, dynastic leaders such as the Ptolemies or Seleucids were also proclaimed heroes. This was an influence on the later, Roman apotheosis of their emperors.

Analysis

The classic hero often came with what Lord Raglan (a descendant of the FitzRoy Somerset, Lord Raglan) termed a "potted biography" made up of some two dozen common traditions that ignored the line between historical fact and mythology. For example, the circumstances of the hero's conception are unusual; an attempt is made by a powerful male at his birth to kill him; he is spirited away; reared by foster-parents in a far country. Routinely the hero meets a mysterious death, often at the top of a hill; his body is not buried; he leaves no successors; he has one or more holy sepulchres.

The first Hero:

Hero (mythical priestess), in Greek mythology, priestess of Aphrodite, goddess of love, at Sestos, a town on the Hellespont (now Dardanelles). Hero was loved by Leander, a youth who lived at Abydos, a town on the Asian side of the channel. They could not marry because Hero was bound by a vow of chastity, and so every night Leander swam from Asia to Europe, guided by a lamp in Hero's tower. One stormy night a high wind extinguished the beacon, and Leander was drowned. His body was washed ashore beneath Hero's tower; in her grief, she threw herself into the sea.

== The validity of the hero in historical studies ==

The philosopher Hegel gave a central role to the "hero", personalized by Napoleon, as the incarnation of a particular culture's ''Volksgeist'', and thus of the general ''Zeitgeist''. Thomas Carlyle's 1841 ''On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History'' also accorded a key function to heroes and great men in history. Carlyle centered history on the biography of a few central individuals such as Oliver Cromwell or Frederick the Great. His heroes were political and military figures, the founders or topplers of states. His history of great men, of geniuses good and evil, sought to organize change in the advent of greatness.

Explicit defenses of Carlyle's position were rare in the second part of the 20th century. Most philosophers of history contend that the motive forces in history can best be described only with a wider lens than the one he used for his portraits. For example, Karl Marx argued that history was determined by the massive social forces at play in "class struggles", not by the individuals by whom these forces are played out. After Marx, Herbert Spencer wrote at the end of the 19th century: "You must admit that the genesis of the great man depends on the long series of complex influences which has produced the race in which he appears, and the social state into which that race has slowly grown....Before he can remake his society, his society must make him." As Michel Foucault pointed out in his analysis of societal communication and debate, history was mainly the "science of the sovereign", until its inversion by the "historical and political popular discourse".

The Annales School, led by Lucien Febvre, Marc Bloch and Fernand Braudel, would contest the exaggeration of the role of individual subjects in history. Indeed, Braudel distinguished various time scales, one accorded to the life of an individual, another accorded to the life of a few human generations, and the last one to civilizations, in which geography, economics and demography play a role considerably more decisive than that of individual subjects. Foucault's conception of an "archeology" ''(not to be confused with the anthropological discipline of archaeology)'' or Louis Althusser's work were attempts at linking together these various heterogeneous layers composing history.

Among noticeable events in the studies of the role of the hero and Great man in history one should mention Sydney Hook's book ''The Hero in History''

In the epoch of globalization an individual can still change the development of the country and of the whole world so this gives reasons to some scholars to suggest returning to the problem of the role of the hero in history from the viewpoint of modern historical knowledge and using up-to-date methods of historical analysis

Within the frameworks of developing counterfactual history, there are made attempts to examine some hypothetic scenarios of historical development. And the hero attracts much attention because most of those scenarios are based on the suppositions: what would have happened if this or that historical individual had or had not been alive

Heroic myth

The concept of a story archetype of the standard "hero's quest" or monomyth pervasive across all cultures is somewhat controversial. Expounded mainly by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it illustrates several uniting themes of hero stories that hold similar ideas of what a hero represents, despite vastly different cultures and beliefs.

Folk and fairy tales

Vladimir Propp, in his analysis of the Russian fairy tale, concluded that a fairy tale had only eight ''dramatis personæ'', of which one was the hero, and his analysis has been widely applied to non-Russian folklore. The actions that fall into a such hero's sphere include: # Departure on a quest # Reacting to the test of a donor # Marrying a princess (or similar figure) He distinguished between ''seekers'' and ''victim-heroes''. A villain could initiate the issue by kidnapping the hero or driving him out; these were victim-heroes. On the other hand, a villain could rob the hero, or kidnap someone close to him, or, without the villain's intervention, the hero could realize that he lacked something and set out to find it; these heroes are seekers. Victims may appear in tales with seeker heroes, but the tale does not follow them both.

The modern fictional hero

Hero or heroine is sometimes used to simply describe the protagonist of a story, or the love interest, a usage which can conflict with the superhuman expectations of heroism. William Makepeace Thackeray gave ''Vanity Fair'' the subtitle ''A Novel without a Hero''. The larger-than-life hero is a more common feature of fantasy (particularly sword and sorcery and epic fantasy) than more realist works.

In modern movies, the hero is often simply an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances, who, despite the odds being stacked against him or her, typically prevails in the end. In some movies (especially action movies), a hero may exhibit characteristics such as superhuman strength and endurance that sometimes makes him nearly invincible. Often a hero in these situations has a foil, the villain, typically a charismatic evildoer who represents, leads, or himself embodies the struggle the hero is up against. Post-modern fictional works have fomented the increased popularity of the antihero, who does not follow common conceptions of heroism.

Hero as self

It has been suggested in an article by Roma Chatterji" that the hero or more generally protagonist is first and foremost a symbolic representation of the person who is experiencing the story while reading, listening or watching; thus the relevance of the hero to the individual relies a great deal on how much similarity there is between the two. The most compelling reason for the hero-as-self interpretation of stories and myths is the human inability to view the world from any perspective but a personal one. The almost universal notion of the hero or protagonist and its resulting hero identification allows us to experience stories in the only way we know how: as ourselves.

See also

Action hero

*List of female action heroes

*List of male action heroes

Antihero

Byronic hero

Culture hero

Folk hero

Germanic hero

Reluctant hero

Romantic hero

Superhero

Tragic hero

Youxia

List of genres

References

Further reading

Hein, David (1993). "The Death of Heroes, the Recovery of the Heroic." ''Christian Century'' 110: 1298-1303. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_n37_v110/ai_14739320 ''or'' http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d;=5000242002

Henry Liddell and Robert Scott. ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057

External links

''The British Hero'' - online exhibition from screenonline, a website of the British Film Institute, looking at British heroes of film and television.

Listen to BBC Radio 4's In Our Time programme on Heroism

Category:Mythological archetypes Category:Mythological characters Category:Fantasy tropes * Category:Literary archetypes Category:Greek loanwords Category:Jungian archetypes

map-bms:Pahlawan br:Haroz bg:Герой ca:Heroi cs:Hrdina cy:Arwr da:Helt de:Held el:Ήρωας es:Héroe eo:Heroo eu:Heroi fr:Héros gd:Gaisgeach gl:Heroe hr:Heroj io:Heroo id:Pahlawan it:Eroe he:גיבור jv:Pahlawan la:Heros li:Haeld hu:Hős mt:Eroj nl:Held ja:ヒーロー no:Helt nn:Helt or:ହିରୋ pl:Bohater pt:Herói ru:Герой scn:Iroi simple:Hero sh:Heroj fi:Sankari sv:Hjälte uk:Герой vi:Anh hùng dân tộc zh-yue:英雄 zh:英雄

name	Mattafix
background	group_or_band
origin	United Kingdom
genre	Hip hop/rap, R&B;, reggae, dancehall, blues, jazz, soul, world
years active	2005–2010
label	Virgin Records (EMI International), Angel Records, Beegood Limited, Buddhist Punk
current members	Marlon RoudettePreetesh Hirji }}

Mattafix are a UK duo, made up of Marlon Roudette and Preetesh Hirji. Their sound is a fusion of hip hop/rap, R&B;, reggae, dancehall, blues, jazz, soul and world. They won the Sopot International Song Festival in 2006.

Biography

Marlon Roudette was born in London and is the son of Cameron McVey, a British music producer, and Vonnie Roudette, a designer and artist from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. As a young child he moved with his mother and sister to St. Vincent, where he began his music career, and returned to London when he was 18. Preetesh Hirji was born in London of dual-Indian parentage and grew up in the heart of West London, where he started at Eastcote Studios on Kensal Road.

''Signs of a Struggle'' (2005-2006)

Mattafix released their first single "11.30 (Dirtiest Trick in Town)" as a limited edition on Buddhist Punk Records on January 13, 2005. However, the song never charted.

Their second single, "Big City Life", was released by EMI on August 8, 2005. It was a considerable hit, managing a number 15 in the United Kingdom and a number 1 in Germany, Poland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and New Zealand. It also had considerable success in other European countries where it reached the top 20. It can also be heard on the soundtrack to the hit video game FIFA World Cup Germany 2006, designed by EA Sports, and was included in the ''NOW! 62'' UK compilation, the duo's first and only song to date, to be included in the series.

''Signs of a Struggle'' received positive reviews and had success in Europe where the band toured extensively throughout 2006-2008. ''Signs of a Struggle'' was a Triple J feature album in April 2006.

The duo toured with the likes of Jem and Joss Stone on their UK tours to promote the album, and have also opened for Sting, in Milan, before a crowd of more than 100,000 people.

Their fourth single, "To & Fro", was released on March 13, 2006. The single was released as a download only in the United Kingdom.

''Rhythm & Hymns'' (2007-2009)

On September 7, 2007, Mattafix released the first single, "Living Darfur", taken from their second album ''Rhythm & Hymns''. It was available as a download only. The single was released physically on October 22, 2007. The video features Matt Damon in the intro. The track was featured as part of the Save Darfur Campaign. Working alongside humanitarian agencies operating in the region, the band filmed a video for the song in the refugee camps in the region. The video became extremely popular on YouTube and to date is the only music video by an international group to be filmed in a war zone.

Speaking in June 2008 to noted UK R&B; writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning Blues & Soul, Roudette explained the musical background to 'Rhythms & Hymns': "With this album I wanted to bring through more aspects of the live show, which is something maybe the first album lacked. You know, we do go out with a seven or eight-piece band, and that has become a big part of the Mattafix sound. So, in addition to keeping the hardcore element and programmed beats from last time round, with 'Rhythms & Hymns' we've also used a lot of live drums. Also, we've added quite a lot of influences that we got from the road. Particularly in places like Johannesburg, where we played a couple of great shows."

The album was released on November 23, 2007 in most European countries. In Australia, it was released on November 17, 2007.

Mattafix remixed Lady Gaga's song "Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)". Their remix appears on her iTunes Remix EP, however, not in the UK version.

Next album (2010-present)

Mattafix are currently working on a new album. In April 2010. Marlon Roudette made a video appearance where he spoke about recording and making the record in his home based studio. However, via Facebook, it was announced that Roudette and Hirji had gone separate ways, due to their different new ideas for future projects. Marlon Roudette is now working on a solo project with the Universal label, apparently to be released in May 2011, which has brought abundant attention to fans. He is yet to come up with his new artist name; whether to stay with the name Mattafix, or choose a new stage name; perhaps his own. "Mattafix presents...Marlon..." was a quote from a late 2010 YouTube video, as an updated possibility for his album title and/or stage name. Marlon Roudette has confirmed that the new album is "not a radical shift but definitely different. More instrumentation and more in depth musical compositions." Marlon Roudette has stated that the album is pretty much completed, but the album is still being "fine tuned.". On July 9, 2011, Marlon Roudette confirmed that the name of the first single from the new album is "New Age", and the name of the album will be called "Matter Fixed".

1. Storyline 2. New Age 3. Hold On Me 4. Brotherhood Of The Broken 5. Didn't I 6. True To Myself 7. Riding Home 8. 10 Million 9. Anti Hero 10. The Loss 11. Closer 12. City Like This

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	Chart positions
!width="30"	!width="30"	!width="30"	!width="30"	!width="30"	!width="30"	!width="30"	!width="30"	!width="30"
2005	''Signs of a Struggle''
2007	''Rhythm & Hymns''

Singles

{|class="wikitable" !rowspan="2"|Year !rowspan="2"|Title !colspan="10"|Chart positions !rowspan="2"|Album |- !width="30"|AUS !width="30"|AUT !width="30"|BEL !width="30"|FRA !width="30"|GER !width="30"|ITA !width="30"|NZ !width="30"|NOR !width="30"|SWI !width="30"|UK |- and "the summer of 69" |rowspan="3"|2005 |"11.30 (Dirtiest Trick in Town)" |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |rowspan="5"| ''Signs of a Struggle'' |- |"Big City Life" |align="center"|19 |align="center"|1 |align="center"|12 |align="center"|17 |align="center"|1 |align="center"|1 |align="center"|1 |align="center"|3 |align="center"|1 |align="center"|15 |- |-rowspan="2"| |"Passer By" |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |- |rowspan="2"|2006 |"To & Fro" |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|56 |align="center"|— |align="center"|73 |align="center"|56 |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|56 |align="center"|— |- |"Cool Down the Pace" |align="center"|— |align="center"|52 |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|82 |align="center"|25 |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|63 |align="center"|— |- |2007 |"Living Darfur" |align="center"|— |align="center"|21 |align="center"|50 |align="center"|50 |align="center"|32 |align="center"|2 |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|13 |align="center"|— |rowspan="2"| ''Rhythm & Hymns'' |- |2008 |"Things Have Changed" |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |align="center"|— |}

Music videos

!Year	!Title	!Director(s)
align="left" rowspan="2"
align="left" rowspan="2"
align="left"
align="left"

References

External links

Official website

Category:Sopot International Song Festival winners Category:British hip hop groups

da:Mattafix de:Mattafix es:Mattafix fr:Mattafix it:Mattafix he:מטאפיקס lt:Mattafix hu:Mattafix nl:Mattafix pl:Mattafix pt:Mattafix ro:Mattafix ru:Mattafix sv:Mattafix

Kim Sanders is an African American singer and songwriter based in Germany. Sanders began to release singles as a solo artist in 1994 and wrote songs for other musicians. In 1993 and '94 she released three of her singles: "Show Me", "Tell Me That You Want Me" and "Ride". In 1998, Sanders was the frontwoman of the German dance project, Culture Beat on the album Metamorphosis. In 2003, she released her debut album ''Pretty on Edge''. Due to a gross error by the record company, placing the incorrect bar code on this album, 'Pretty On Edge' did not enter the charts. Although this was a huge setback for Kim's solo career, she has since contributed her vocals and composed songs for artists such as, Schiller, Aural Float, Stephanie Heinzmann, Till Brönner, Nicola Conte and Wolfgang Haffner. Her current solo album ''A Closer Look'' was released in 2009 with the C.A.R.E. Music Group and won the 'Preis Der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik' (German Recording Critics Prize) in the category of Black Music, in February 2010.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions
!style="width:3em;font-size:85%"
2003		*Released: June 2, 2003	Universal Records>Universal) (Germany)	Compact Disc>CD, Compact Cassette	—
2009		*Released: November 6, 2009	Edel) (Germany)	Music download>digital download,	—

Solo Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions	Album
!style="width:3em;font-size:85%"			!style="width:3em;font-size:85%"
		33	33
		87	—
	—	—
		—	—
		—	—
		—	—
	—	—

Featured singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions	Album
!style="width:3em;font-size:85%"
		—
	align="left"	73
	—
		73
		—
	—
		—
	—
		63	rowspan=2
	—
		—

References

External links

Kim's Official Site

Category:American pop singers Category:American female singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Living people

de:Kim Sanders

birth date	August 07, 1975
birth place	Benoni, Transvaal Province, South Africa
years active	1995–present
occupation	Actress, producer, director, fashion model
website	Official website
partner	Stuart Townsend (2000–2010; separated) }}

Charlize Theron (; born 7 August 1975) is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model.

She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in ''2 Days in the Valley'', ''Mighty Joe Young'', ''The Devil's Advocate'' and ''The Cider House Rules''. She received critical acclaim and an Academy Award for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film ''Monster'', for which she became the first South African to win an Academy Award in a major acting category. She received another Academy Award nomination for her performance in ''North Country''.

Early life

Theron was born in Benoni, in the then Transvaal Province of South Africa, the only child of Gerda Jacoba Aletta (née Maritz; born 27 January 1953) and Charles Jacobus Theron (27 November 1947 – 21 June 1991). Her mother is of German descent and her father was of Occitan and Dutch ancestry; Theron is descended from early Huguenot settlers, and Boer War figure Daniel Theron was her great-great uncle. "Theron" is an Occitan surname (originally spelled Théron) pronounced in Afrikaans as "Tronn", although she has said that the way it is pronounced in South Africa is "Thrown". She changed the pronunciation when she moved to the U.S.

Although fluent in English, her first language is Afrikaans. She grew up on her parents' farm in Benoni, near Johannesburg. Her father died on 21 June 1991, after he was shot by Theron's mother. Theron's father, who suffered from alcoholism, physically attacked her mother and threatened both women while being drunk. The shooting was legally adjudged to have been self-defence and her mother faced no charges.

Theron attended Putfontein Primary School (Laerskool Putfontein). At the age of thirteen, Theron was sent to boarding school and began her studies at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg.

Career

At the age of sixteen, Theron travelled to Milan on a one-year modelling contract, after winning a local competition. She went to New York with Pauline's Model Management. She decided to remain after her contract ended, attending the Joffrey Ballet School, where she trained as a ballet dancer. A knee injury closed this career path when Theron was 19.

Unable to dance, Theron flew to Los Angeles on a one-way ticket her mother bought her. During her early months there, she went to a bank to cash a cheque her mother had sent her to help with the rent. When the teller refused to cash it, Theron immediately started a shouting match with her. Afterwards, a talent agent in line behind her handed her his business card and subsequently introduced her to some casting agents and also an acting school. She later fired him as her manager after he kept sending her scripts for films similar to ''Showgirls'' and ''Species''. After several months in the city, she was cast in her first film part, a non-speaking role in the direct-to-video film ''Children of the Corn III'' (1995). Her fist speaking role was a supporting but significant part in ''2 Days in the Valley''. Larger roles in widely released Hollywood films followed, and her career expanded in the late 1990s with box office successes like ''The Devil's Advocate'' (1997), ''Mighty Joe Young'' (1998), and ''The Cider House Rules'' (1999). She was on the cover of the January 1999 issue of ''Vanity Fair'' as the "White Hot Venus".

After appearing in a few notable films, Theron starred as the serial killer Aileen Wuornos in ''Monster'' (2003). Film critic Roger Ebert called it "one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema". For this role, Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 76th Academy Awards in February 2004, as well as the SAG Award and the Golden Globe Award. She is the first South African to win an Oscar for Best Actress. The Oscar win pushed her to ''The Hollywood Reporter's'' 2006 list of highest-paid actresses in Hollywood; earning $10,000,000 for both her subsequent films, ''North Country'' and ''Æon Flux'', she ranked seventh, behind Halle Berry, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Renée Zellweger, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.

On 30 September 2005, Theron received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In the same year, she starred in the financially unsuccessful science fiction thriller ''Æon Flux''.

Theron received Best Actress Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for her lead performance in the drama ''North Country''. ''Ms.'' magazine also honoured her for this performance with a feature article in its Fall 2005 issue. She also received the 2005 Spike Video Game Award for Best Performance by a Human Female for her voiceover work in the Æon Flux video game.

In 2005 Theron portrayed Rita, Michael Bluth's (Jason Bateman) love interest, on the third season of Fox's critically acclaimed television series ''Arrested Development''. She also received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her role of Britt Ekland in the 2004 HBO movie ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers''.

In 2008 Theron was named the Hasty Pudding Theatricals Woman of the Year. That year she also starred with Will Smith in ''Hancock'', a film that grossed $227.9M in the U.S. and $396.4M internationally, and in late 2008 she was asked to be a UN Messenger of Peace by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

In October 2009, Theron was cast to star in a sequel to the ''Mad Max'' films, titled ''Mad Max: Road Fury'', which will commence filming at Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia in late 2010.

On 4 December 2009, Theron co-presented the draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, accompanied by several other celebrities of South African origin. During rehearsals she drew an Ireland ball instead of France as a joke at the expense of FIFA, referring to Thierry Henry's handball controversy in the play off match between France and Ireland. The stunt alarmed FIFA enough for it to fear she might do it again in front of a live global audience.

As reported on Piers Morgan Tonight on 2 July 2011, Theron's movies have earned a combine total of 800 Million dollars.

Theron has been cast in the role of The Wicked Queen in ''Snow White and the Huntsman''.

Personal life

Theron lives in the Los Angeles area. She separated from her partner of almost a decade, Irish actor Stuart Townsend (with whom she starred in the 2004 film ''Head in the Clouds'' as well as in the 2002 film ''Trapped''), in January 2010.

Theron became a naturalised citizen of the United States in May 2007.

She signed with William Morris Endeavour in 2009 and is represented by CEO Ari Emanuel.

Health concerns

While filming ''Æon Flux'' in Berlin, Germany, Theron suffered a herniated disc in her neck, which occurred as a result of her suffering a fall while filming a series of back handsprings. This required her to wear a neck collar for a month.

In July 2009 Theron was diagnosed with a serious stomach virus, thought to be contracted while travelling outside the United States. She was hospitalised at Cedars-Sinai Hospital and she finished convalescing in her own home.

Promotional deals

Having signed a deal with John Galliano in 2004, Theron replaced Estonian model Tiiu Kuik as the spokeswoman in the ''J'ADORE'' advertisements by Christian Dior. Galliano has reputedly cited her as a muse and has been creating couture dresses for her to wear to formal red carpet events such as the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.

From October 2005 to December 2006 Theron earned $3,000,000 for the use of her image in a worldwide print media advertising campaign for Raymond Weil watches. In February 2006, she and her loan-out corporation were sued by Weil for breach of contract. The lawsuit was settled on 4 November 2008.

Activism

Theron is involved in women's rights organisations, and has marched in pro-choice rallies.

Theron also is a supporter of animal rights and active member of PETA. She appeared in a PETA ad for their anti-fur campaign. She is a supporter of same-sex marriage and attended a march to support that in Fresno, California, on 30 May 2009.

In July 2009 it was announced that Theron's Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) would form a coalition with LAFC Soccer Club to give soccer fields to rural areas in South Africa. LAFC Chelsea, one of the United States's most successful and prominent youth soccer clubs, made a three-year commitment to help build a community-wide soccer programme for the schools in the Umkhanyakude District. This help includes uniforms, cleats, balls and equipment, along with professional training for local coaches, referees and administrators. The soccer league training will also include life-saving health education administered through a CTAOP-funded mobile health program. With the 2010 FIFA World Cup on African soil for the very first time, CTAOP wants to put a spotlight on the urgent need to provide sustainable health, education and recreational resources to remote areas where HIV/AIDS rates are unacceptably high.

Don Sheppards, president of LAFC Chelsea, said:

In December 2009, CTAOP and TOMS Shoes partnered to create a limited edition unisex shoe. The shoe was made from vegan-materials and was inspired by the African Baobab tree, whose silhouette was embroidered on blue and orange canvas. 10,000 pairs were given to destitute children, and a portion of the proceeds went direcly to CTAOP.

Filmography

+ Films
! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1995	''Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest''	Young Woman	Uncredited
1996	''2 Days in the Valley''	Helga Svelgen
1996	''That Thing You Do!''	Tina Powers
1997	''Hollywood Confidential''	Sally	TV film
1997		Billie Tyler
1997	''''	Mary Ann Lomax
1998		Supermodel
1998		Jill Young	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1999	''''	Jillian Armacost
1999	''''	Candy Kendall
2000	''Reindeer Games''	Ashley Mercer
2000	''''	Erica Stoltz
2000	''''	Adele Invergordon
2000	''Men of Honor''	Gwen Sunday
2001		Sara Deever
2001	''''	Laura Kensington
2001	''15 Minutes''	Rose Heam
2002		Karen Jennings
2002	''Waking Up in Reno''	Candy Kirkendall
2003	''''	Stella Bridger
2003		Aileen Wuornos	Academy Award for Best ActressBroadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressCentral Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressChicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressDallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture DramaIndependent Spirit Award for Best First FeatureIndependent Spirit Award for Best Lead FemaleLas Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressNational Board of Review Award for Best Breakthrough Performance by an ActressNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActressSan Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressSatellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture DramaScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role - Motion PictureSilver Bear for Best Actress (tied with Catalina Sandino Moreno for ''Maria full of Grace'')Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated—London Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNominated—Irish Film & Television Award for Best International Actress
2004	''''	Britt Ekland	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for TelevisionNominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Miniseries or a MovieNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2004	''Head in the Clouds''	Gilda Bessé
2005		Josey Aimes	Women Film Critics Circle
2005	''''	[[Æon Flux
2007	''In the Valley of Elah''	Det. Emily Sanders
2008		Joleen	Also producer
2008		Mary Embrey	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
2008	''Battle in Seattle''	Ella	Stuart Townsend directing
2009	''''	Sylvia	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress
2009	''''	Wife
2009		Narrator
2011		Mavis Gary	''Post-production''
2012		The Queen	''Filming''
2012		Meredith Vickers	''Filming''

+ Television
! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
2005		Rita	5 episodes
2006	''Robot Chicken''	Daniel's Mom / Mother / Waitress	1 episode

+ Music Videos
! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
2010		Mysterious and dangerous rescuer	Song by Brandon Flowers

References

External links

Charlize Theron at AskMen

Charlize Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP)

Category:1975 births Category:Afrikaner people Category:American activists Category:American film actors Category:American people of South African descent Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners Category:Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:GLAAD Media Awards winners Category:Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead winners Category:Living people Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Benoni Category:South African emigrants to the United States Category:South African female models Category:South African film actors Category:South African people of Dutch descent Category:South African people of German descent Category:South African people of Huguenot descent Category:United Nations Messengers of Peace Category:White South African people

af:Charlize Theron ar:تشارليز ثيرون az:Şarliz Teron be:Шарліз Тэрон be-x-old:Шарліз Тэран bs:Charlize Theron bg:Шарлиз Терон ca:Charlize Theron cs:Charlize Theronová da:Charlize Theron de:Charlize Theron et:Charlize Theron es:Charlize Theron eo:Charlize Theron eu:Charlize Theron fa:شارلیز ترون fr:Charlize Theron ko:샬리즈 시어런 hy:Շարլիզ Թերոն hi:चार्लीज़ थेरॉन hr:Charlize Theron id:Charlize Theron it:Charlize Theron he:שרליז ת'רון jv:Charlize Theron ka:შარლიზ ტერონი sw:Charlize Theron la:Charlize Theron lv:Šarlīze Terona lt:Charlize Theron hu:Charlize Theron mr:चार्लीझ थेरॉन nl:Charlize Theron ja:シャーリーズ・セロン no:Charlize Theron oc:Charlize Theron pl:Charlize Theron pt:Charlize Theron ro:Charlize Theron ru:Терон, Шарлиз sq:Charlize Theron simple:Charlize Theron sk:Charlize Theronová sl:Charlize Theron sr:Шарлиз Терон fi:Charlize Theron sv:Charlize Theron tl:Charlize Theron ta:சார்லீசு தெரன் th:ชาร์ลิซ เธอรอน tg:Шарлийз Терон tr:Charlize Theron uk:Шарліз Терон vi:Charlize Theron yo:Charlize Theron zh:查理兹·塞隆