Goldie Hawn
Hawn in February 2008
Born	Goldie Jeanne Hawn (1945-11-21) November 21, 1945 (age 66) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupation	Actress, producer, director
Years active	1967–present
Spouse	Gus Trikonis (m. 1969-1976) Bill Hudson (m. 1976-1980; 2 children)
Partner	Kurt Russell (1983-present; 1 child)
Children	Oliver Rutledge Hudson (1976-09-06) September 6, 1976 (age 35) Kate Garry Hudson (1979-04-19) April 19, 1979 (age 33) Wyatt Russell (1986-07-10) July 10, 1986 (age 25)
Relatives	Erinn Bartlett (daughter-in-law)

Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Shampoo, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is the mother of actors Oliver and Kate Hudson. Hawn has maintained a relationship with actor Kurt Russell since 1983.

Early life[link]

Hawn was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Laura (née Steinhoff), a jewelry shop/dance school owner, and Edward Rutledge Hawn, a band musician who played at major events in Washington. She was named after her mother's aunt.^[1] She has a sister, Patricia; her brother, Edward, died before she was born. Through her father, Hawn is a direct descendant of Edward Rutledge, the youngest signatory of the Declaration of Independence.^[1] Hawn was raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she went to Montgomery Blair High School. Her father was Presbyterian and her mother was Jewish, the daughter of immigrants from Hungary;^[2] Hawn had a Jewish upbringing.^[1][3][4][5]

Hawn began taking ballet and tap dance lessons at the age of three, and danced in the chorus of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo production of The Nutcracker in 1955. She made her stage debut in 1961, playing Juliet in a Virginia Shakespeare Festival production of Romeo and Juliet. By 1964, she ran and taught in a ballet school, having dropped out of American University, where she was majoring in drama. In 1964, Hawn made her professional dancing debut in a production of Can-Can at the Texas Pavilion of the New York World's Fair. She began working as a professional dancer a year later, and appeared as a go-go dancer in New York City.^[1]

Career[link]

1960s[link]

Hawn with Carl Reiner on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, 1970.

Hawn began her acting career as a cast member of the short-lived situation comedy Good Morning, World during the 1967-1968 television season, her role being that of the girlfriend of a radio disc jockey, with a stereotypical "dumb blonde" personality.^[1] Her next role, which brought her to international attention, was as one of the regular cast members on the 1968-1973 sketch comedy show, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. On the show, she would often break out into high-pitched giggles in the middle of a joke, and deliver a polished performance a moment after. Noted equally for her chipper attitude as for her bikini and painted body, Hawn personified something of a 1960s "It" girl.

Hawn's Laugh-In persona was parlayed into three popular film appearances in the late 1960s and early 1970s: Cactus Flower, There's a Girl in My Soup, and Butterflies Are Free. Hawn had made her feature film debut in a bit role as a giggling dancer in the 1968 film The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, in which she was billed as "Goldie Jeanne", but in her first major film role, in Cactus Flower (1969), she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Walter Matthau's suicidal fiancée.

1970s[link]

After Hawn's Academy Award win, her film career took off. She starred in a string of above average and successful comedies starting with There's a Girl in My Soup (1970), $ (1971), and Butterflies Are Free (1972), as well as proving herself in the dramatic league with the 1974 satirical dramas The Girl from Petrovka and The Sugarland Express, and Shampoo in 1975. She also hosted two television specials: Pure Goldie in 1971 and The Goldie Hawn Special in 1978. The latter was a sort of comeback for Hawn, who had been out of the spotlight for two years since the 1976 release of The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox, while she was focusing on her marriage and the birth of her son. On the special she performed show tunes and comedy bits alongside comic legend George Burns, teen matinee idol Shaun Cassidy, popular television star John Ritter (during his days on Three's Company), and even the Harlem Globetrotters joined her for a montage. The special later went on to be nominated for a primetime Emmy. This came four months before the feature film release of Foul Play (with Chevy Chase), which became a box office smash and revived Hawn's career in the film industry. The plot centered around an innocent woman in San Francisco who becomes mixed up in a murder plot. Hawn's next film, Mario Monicelli's Lovers and Liars (1979), was a box office bomb. In 1972 Hawn recorded and released a solo country LP for Warner Brothers, titled Goldie. It was recorded with the help of Dolly Parton and Buck Owens. Allmusic gives the album a favorable review, calling it a "sweetly endearing country-tinged middle of the road pop record".^[6]

1980s[link]

Hawn's popularity continued into the 1980s, starting with another primetime variety special alongside actress and singer Liza Minnelli, Goldie and Liza Together (1980), which was nominated for four primetime Emmys. In the same year, Hawn took the lead role in Private Benjamin, a comedy she produced. Private Benjamin, which also stars Eileen Brennan and Armand Assante, garnered Hawn her second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actress.^[1] Hawn's box office success continued with comedies like Seems Like Old Times (1980), Protocol (1984), and Wildcats (1986) — Hawn also served as executive producer on the latter two — and dramas like Best Friends (1982) and Swing Shift (1984).

At the age of thirty-nine, Hawn posed for the cover of Playboy's January 1985 issue. Hawn posed in a giant martini glass wearing nothing but a white collar shirt, a loosened black tie, and a pair of red stilettos. Her last film of the 1980s was opposite partner Kurt Russell for the third time in the comedy Overboard (1987).

1990s[link]

Hawn at Grand Hôtel in Stockholm 1981

Hawn's career slowed down after leaving Hollywood in the late 1980s, but revived somewhat in 1990 with the action comedy Bird on a Wire, a critically panned but commercially successful picture that paired Hawn with Mel Gibson. Hawn had mixed success in the early 1990s, with the thriller Deceived (1991), the drama CrissCross and opposite Bruce Willis and Meryl Streep in Death Becomes Her (both 1992). Earlier that year, she starred in HouseSitter, a screwball comedy with Steve Martin, which was a commercial and critical success. Hawn was absent from the screen again for four years while caring for her mother who died of cancer in 1994.^[1] Hawn made her entry back into film as producer of the satirical comedy Something to Talk About starring Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid, as well as making her directorial debut in the television film Hope (1997) starring Christine Lahti and Jena Malone.^[1]

Hawn returned to the screen again in 1996 as the aging, alcoholic actress Elise Elliot in the financially and critically successful The First Wives Club, opposite Bette Midler and Diane Keaton, with whom she covered the Lesley Gore hit "You Don't Own Me" for the film's soundtrack. Hawn also performed a cover version of the Beatles' song, "A Hard Day's Night", on George Martin's 1998 album, In My Life. She continued her tenure in the 1990s with Woody Allen's musical Everyone Says I Love You (1996) and reuniting with Steve Martin for the comedy The Out-of-Towners (1999), a remake of the 1970 Neil Simon hit. The film was critically panned and was not successful at the box office.^[7][8] In 1997, Hawn, along with her co-stars from The First Wives Club, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler, were recipients of the Women in Film Crystal Awards.^[9]

2000s[link]

In 2001, Hawn was reunited with former co-stars Warren Beatty (her co-star in $ and Shampoo) and Diane Keaton for the comedy Town & Country, a critical and financial fiasco. Budgeted at an estimated US$90 million, the film opened to little notice and grossed only $7 million in its North American theatrical run. In 2002, she appeared in The Banger Sisters opposite Susan Sarandon and Geoffrey Rush.

In 2005, Hawn's autobiography, A Lotus Grows in the Mud, was published.

Personal life[link]

Relationships and family[link]

Hawn's first husband was dancer (later director) Gus Trikonis, who appeared as a Shark in West Side Story; his sister Gina played Graziella, Riff's girlfriend. Her second husband was Bill Hudson, of the Hudson Brothers; the couple married in 1976 and divorced in 1980. They have two children, actor Oliver Hudson (born September 1976) and actress Kate Hudson (born April 1979).

Hawn has been in a relationship with actor Kurt Russell since 1983. They had first met while filming The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968), but became involved with each other only after meeting on the set of Swing Shift. The couple have a son, Wyatt Russell (born 1986).^[10]

Hawn is the stepmother of Kurt Russell's son Boston, and she became a grandmother in 2004 when her daughter gave birth to son Ryder Russell Robinson. Her second grandson, Wilder Brooks Hudson, was born to her son Oliver and his wife, actress Erinn Bartlett, in 2007.^[11] In 2010, Oliver and his wife had another boy, whom they named Bodhi Hawn Hudson. Hawn announced it via her Twitter.^[12] Her daughter Kate gave birth to her fourth grandson, named Bingham Hawn Bellamy, in July 2011.^[13][14]

Religion[link]

Hawn became involved in Eastern philosophy in 1972. She is a practicing Buddhist and has raised her children in both Buddhist and Jewish traditions. She stated on the Larry King Show that she is a Jewish Buddhist, but neither more Jewish nor more Buddhist;^[15] in interviews, she also detailed that she never had to forsake her Jewish heritage to embrace Buddhism^[3] and that her Jewish religion and heritage come before Buddhism.^{[citation needed][16]} Hawn travels to India annually, and has visited Israel, stating that she felt a strong identification with its people.^[3] She has been criticized by pro-Palestinian activists for her support for Israel and the Jewish National Fund.^[17] In 1997, she was one of a number of Hollywood stars and executives to sign an open letter to then-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, published as a newspaper advertisement in the International Herald Tribune, which protested the treatment of Scientologists in Germany.^[18]

Mindfulness[link]

Hawn founded and funds The Hawn Foundation,^[19] which teaches the Buddhist technique of mindfulness training; where fourth- through seventh-graders are instructed in mindful awareness techniques and positive thinking skills, then tested for changes in behavior, social and emotional competence, and moral development.^[20] A study by the University of British Columbia indicated that children who participated in the program increased significantly in the areas of optimism and positive emotions, while decreasing in aggression.^[21] Hawn was in negotiation with the British Conservative Party (before the country's 2010 general election) to set up a school in Britain where her MindUp technique would be taught.^[22] Hawn realizes that many parents oppose bringing Buddhist methods into public schools, and stated: "There will always be people who see this as scary, or as some kind of Eastern philosophy that they don't want for their kids." Hawn adds, "Mindfulness gives kids a tool for understanding how their brain works, for having more self-control."^[23]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Goldie Hawn

• Goldie Hawn at the Internet Movie Database
• Goldie Hawn at the TCM Movie Database
• The Hawn Foundation

Interviews[link]

• "Hawn: From 'Cactus Flower' to 'Lotus'" USA Today (May 4, 2005)
• "Goldie Hawn A Wallflower?" .60 Minutes. CBS News (May 1, 2005)
• "The Banger Sisters". BBC News Online (January 17, 2003)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008)

Dean Martin
Photo 1960
Background information
Birth name	Dino Paul Crocetti
Also known as	Dean Martin The King of Cool Dino Dino Martini
Born	(1917-06-07)June 7, 1917 Steubenville, Ohio, U.S.
Died	December 25, 1995(1995-12-25) (aged 78) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Genres	Big band, easy listening, pop standard, country
Occupations	Musician, singer, actor, comedian, film producer
Years active	1939–1995
Labels	Capitol, Reprise

Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?". Nicknamed the "King of Cool",^[1][2] he was one of the members of the "Rat Pack" and a major star in four areas of show business: concert stage/night clubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television.

Early life[link]

Martin was born in Steubenville, Ohio, to Italian parents, Gaetano and Angela Crocetti (née Barra). His father was from Montesilvano, Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy, and his mother was an Italian of part Neapolitan and part Sicilian ancestry. Martin was the younger of two sons. His brother was named Bill. Martin spoke only Italian until he started school. He attended Grant Elementary School in Steubenville, and took up the drums as a hobby as a teenager. He was the target of much ridicule for his broken English and ultimately dropped out of Steubenville High School in the 10th grade because he thought that he was smarter than his teachers.^[3] He delivered bootleg liquor, served as a speakeasy croupier, was a blackjack dealer, worked in a steel mill and boxed as welterweight. He grew up a neighbor to Jimmy the Greek.

At the age of 15, he was a boxer who billed himself as "Kid Crochet". His prizefighting years earned him a broken nose (later straightened), a scarred lip, and many sets of broken knuckles (a result of not being able to afford the tape used to wrap boxers' hands). Of his twelve bouts, he would later say "I won all but eleven."^[4] For a time, he roomed with Sonny King, who, like Martin, was just starting in show business and had little money. It is said that Martin and King held bare-knuckle matches in their apartment, fighting until one of them was knocked out; people paid to watch. Martin knocked out King in the first round of an amateur boxing match.^[5]

Eventually, Martin gave up boxing. He worked as a roulette stickman and croupier in an illegal casino behind a tobacco shop where he had started as a stock boy. At the same time, he sang with local bands, calling himself "Dino Martini" (after the famous Metropolitan Opera tenor, Nino Martini). He got his first break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. He sang in a crooning style influenced by Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), among others. In the early 1940s, he started singing for bandleader Sammy Watkins, who suggested that he change his name to Dean Martin.

In October 1941, Martin married Elizabeth Anne McDonald. During their marriage (ended by divorce in 1949), they had four children. Martin worked for various bands throughout the early 1940s, mostly on looks and personality until he developed his own singing style. Martin famously flopped at the Riobamba, a high class nightclub in New York,^[6] when he followed Frank Sinatra in 1943, but it was the setting for their meeting.

Martin was drafted into the United States Army in 1944 during World War II, serving a year stationed in Akron, Ohio. He was then reclassified as 4-F and was discharged (possibly because of a double hernia; Jerry Lewis referred to the surgery that Martin needed for this in his autobiography).

By 1946, Martin was doing relatively well, but was still little more than an East Coast nightclub singer with a common style, similar to that of Bing Crosby. He drew audiences to the clubs where he played, but he inspired none of the fanatical popularity enjoyed by Sinatra.

Alleged Mafia connections[link]

A biography of Martin titled Dean Martin: King of the Road, by Michael Freedland, alleged that he had links to the Mafia early in his career. According to this book, Martin received help with his singing career from members of the Chicago Outfit, who owned saloons in the city, and later performed in shows hosted by these bosses when he was a star. The mob bosses were Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana. Freedland suggests that Martin felt little sympathy for the Mafia and did small favors for them only if it was not inconvenient for him. Another book, The Animal in Hollywood by John L. Smith, depicted Martin's longtime friendship with Mafia mobsters Johnny Roselli and Anthony Fiato. Smith suggested that Fiato did many favors for Martin, such as recovering money from two swindlers who had cheated his ex-wife Betty out of thousands of dollars of her alimony.^[7]

Career[link]

Teaming with Jerry Lewis[link]

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis

Martin attracted the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures, but a Hollywood contract was not forthcoming. He met comic Jerry Lewis at the Glass Hat Club in New York, where both men were performing. Martin and Lewis formed a fast friendship which led to their participation in each other's acts and the ultimate formation of a music-comedy team.

Martin and Lewis's official debut together occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24, 1946, and they were not well received. The owner, Skinny D'Amato, warned them that if they did not come up with a better act for their second show later that night, they would be fired. Huddling together in the alley behind the club, Lewis and Martin agreed to "go for broke", to throw out the pre-scripted gags and to improvise. Martin sang and Lewis came out dressed as a busboy, dropping plates and making a shambles of both Martin's performance and the club's sense of decorum until Lewis was chased from the room as Martin pelted him with breadrolls. They did slapstick, reeled off old vaudeville jokes, and did whatever else popped into their heads at the moment. This time, the audience doubled over in laughter. This success led to a series of well-paying engagements on the Eastern seaboard, culminating in a triumphant run at New York's Copacabana. Patrons were convulsed by the act, which consisted primarily of Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, and ultimately the two of them chasing each other around the stage and having as much fun as possible. The secret, both said, is that they essentially ignored the audience and played to one another.

The team made its TV debut on the very first broadcast of CBS-TV network's Toast of the Town (later called The Ed Sullivan Show) with Ed Sullivan and Rodgers & Hammerstein appearing on this same inaugural telecast of June 20, 1948. A radio series commenced in 1949, the same year Martin and Lewis were signed by Paramount producer Hal B. Wallis as comedy relief for the movie My Friend Irma.

Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated for them one of Hollywood's best deals: although they received only a modest $75,000 between them for their films with Wallis, Martin and Lewis were free to do one outside film a year, which they would co-produce through their own York Productions. They also had complete control of their club, record, radio and television appearances, and it was through these endeavors that they earned millions of dollars.

In Dean & Me, Lewis calls Martin one of the great comic geniuses of all time. But the harsh comments from the critics, as well as frustration with the formulaic similarity of Martin and Lewis movies, which producer Hal Wallis stubbornly refused to change, led to Martin's dissatisfaction.^[8] He put less enthusiasm into the work, leading to escalating arguments with Lewis. They finally could not work together, especially after Martin told his partner he was "nothing to me but a dollar sign". The act broke up in 1956, 10 years to the day from the first official teaming.

Martin's first solo film, Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), was a box office failure. He was still popular as a singer, but with rock and roll surging to the fore, the era of the pop crooner was waning.

Solo career[link]

Dean Martin in the film Ada (1961)

Never totally comfortable in films, Martin wanted to be known as a real actor. Though offered a fraction of his former salary to co-star in a war drama, The Young Lions (1957), he was ecstatic to receive the part because it would be a dramatic showcase with the two most intriguing young actors of the period and he could learn from Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. Tony Randall already had the part, but talent agency MCA realized that with this movie, Martin would become a triple threat: they could make money from his work in night clubs, movies, and records. Martin replaced Randall and the film turned out to be the beginning of Martin's spectacular comeback. Success would continue as Martin starred alongside Frank Sinatra for the first time in a highly acclaimed Vincente Minnelli drama, Some Came Running (1958). By the mid '60s, Martin was a top movie, recording, television, and nightclub star, while Lewis' film career declined. Martin was acclaimed for his performance as Dude in Rio Bravo (1959), directed by Howard Hawks and also starring John Wayne and singer Ricky Nelson. He teamed up again with Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), somewhat unconvincingly cast as brothers.

In 1960, Martin was cast in the motion picture version of the Judy Holliday hit stage play Bells Are Ringing. Martin played a satiric variation of his own womanizing persona as Vegas singer "Dino" in Billy Wilder's comedy Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with Kim Novak, and he was not above poking fun at his image in films such as the Matt Helm spy spoofs of the 1960s, in which he was a co-producer. Indeed, in the second Matt Helm film Murderers' Row (1966), Helm, about to be executed, receives a last cigarette, and tells the provider, "I'll remember you from the great beyond," continuing sotto voce, "somewhere around Steubenville, I hope."

With John Wayne in Rio Bravo

As a singer, Martin copied the styles of Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), Bing Crosby, and Perry Como until he developed his own and could hold his own in duets with Sinatra and Crosby. Like Sinatra, he could not read music, but he recorded more than 100 albums and 600 songs. His signature tune, "Everybody Loves Somebody", knocked The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" out of the number-one spot in the United States in 1964. This was followed by the similarly-styled "The Door is Still Open to My Heart", which reached number six later that year. Elvis Presley was said to have been influenced by Martin, and patterned "Love Me Tender" after his style. Martin, like Elvis, was influenced by country music. By 1965, some of Martin's albums, such as Dean "Tex" Martin, The Hit Sound Of Dean Martin, Welcome To My World and Gentle On My Mind were composed of country and western songs made famous by artists like Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and Buck Owens. Martin hosted country performers on his TV show and was named "Man Of the Year" by the Country Music Association in 1966. "Ain't That a Kick in the Head", a song Martin performed in Ocean's 11 that never became a hit at the time, has enjoyed a spectacular revival in the media and pop culture.

For three decades, Martin was among the most popular acts in Las Vegas. Martin sang and was one of the smoothest comics in the business, benefiting from the decade of raucous comedy with Lewis. Martin's daughter, Gail, also sang in Vegas and on his TV show, co-hosting his summer replacement series on NBC. Though often thought of as a ladies' man, Martin spent a lot of time with his family; as second wife Jeanne put it, prior to the couple's divorce, "He was home every night for dinner."

The Rat Pack[link]

As Martin's solo career grew, he and Frank Sinatra became close friends. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Martin and Sinatra, along with friends Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, and Sammy Davis, Jr. formed the legendary Rat Pack, so called by the public after an earlier group of social friends, the Holmby Hills Rat Pack centered on Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, of which Sinatra had been a member.

Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra

The Martin-Sinatra-Davis-Lawford-Bishop group referred to themselves as "The Summit" or "The Clan" and never as "The Rat Pack", although this has remained their identity in the popular imagination. The men made films together, formed an important part of the Hollywood social scene in those years, and were politically influential (through Lawford's marriage to Patricia Kennedy, sister of President John F. Kennedy).

The Rat Pack were legendary for their Las Vegas Strip performances. For example, the marquee at the Sands Hotel might read DEAN MARTIN---MAYBE FRANK---MAYBE SAMMY. Las Vegas rooms were at a premium when the Rat Pack would appear, with many visitors sleeping in hotel lobbies or cars to get a chance to see the three men together. Their appearances were unprecedentedly valuable because the city would always become flooded with high rollers, wealthy gamblers who would routinely leave substantial fortunes in the casinos' coffers. Their act (always in tuxedo) consisted of each singing individual numbers, duets and trios, along with much seemingly improvised slapstick and chatter. In the socially-charged 1960s, their jokes revolved around adult themes, such as Sinatra's infamous womanizing and Martin's legendary drinking, as well as many at the expense of Davis's race and religion. Davis famously practiced Judaism and used Yiddish phrases onstage, eliciting much merriment from both his stage-mates and his audiences.^{[citation needed]} It was all good-natured male bonding, never vicious, rarely foul-mouthed,^{[citation needed]} and the three had great respect for each other. The Rat Pack was largely responsible for the integration of Las Vegas. Sinatra and Martin were active supporters of the Civil Rights Movement and refused to perform in clubs that would not allow African-American or Jewish performers.^[9]

Posthumously, the Rat Pack has experienced a popular revival, inspiring the George Clooney/Brad Pitt "Ocean's" trilogy.

The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast[link]

In 1965, Martin launched his weekly NBC comedy-variety series, The Dean Martin Show, which exploited his public image as a lazy, carefree boozer. There he perfected his famous laid-back persona of the half-drunk crooner suavely hitting on beautiful women with hilarious remarks that would get anyone else slapped, and making snappy if slurred remarks about fellow celebrities during his famous roasts. During an interview he stated, and this may have been tongue-in-cheek, that he had someone record them on cassette tape so he could listen to them; this is evidenced by his comments to this effect on the British TV documentary 'Wine, Women and Song' which was aired in 1983.

The TV show was a success. Martin prided himself on memorizing whole scripts – not merely his own lines.^{[citation needed]} He disliked rehearsing because he firmly believed his best performances were his first.^{[citation needed]} The show's loose format prompted quick-witted improvisation from Martin and the cast. On occasion, he made remarks in Italian, some mild obscenities that brought angry mail from offended, Italian-speaking viewers.^{[citation needed]} This prompted a battle between Martin and NBC censors, who insisted on more scrutiny of the show's content. The show was often in the Top Ten. Martin, deeply appreciative of the efforts of the show's producer, his friend Greg Garrison, later made a handshake deal giving Garrison, a pioneer TV producer in the 1950s, 50% ownership of the show. However, the validity of that ownership is currently the subject of a lawsuit brought by NBC Universal.

Despite Martin's reputation as a heavy drinker – a reputation perpetuated via his vanity license plates reading "DRUNKY" – he was remarkably self-disciplined.^[10] He was often the first to call it a night, and when not on tour or on a film location, liked to go home to see his wife and children. Phyllis Diller has said that Martin was indeed drinking alcohol onstage and not apple juice. She also commented that although he was not drunk, he was not really sober either, but had very strict rules when it came to performances. He borrowed the lovable-drunk shtick from Joe E. Lewis, but his convincing portrayals of heavy boozers in Some Came Running and Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo led to unsubstantiated claims of alcoholism. More often than not, Martin's idea of a good time was playing golf or watching TV, particularly westerns – not staying with Rat Pack friends Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. into the early hours of the morning.^{[citation needed]}

Martin starred in and co-produced a series of four Matt Helm superspy comedy adventures. A fifth, The Ravagers, was planned starring Sharon Tate and Martin in a dual role, one as a serial killer, but due to the murder of Tate and the decline of the spy genre, the film was never made.^{[citation needed]}

By the early 1970s, The Dean Martin Show was still earning solid ratings, and although he was no longer a Top 40 hitmaker, his record albums continued to sell steadily. His name on a marquee could guarantee casinos and nightclubs a standing-room-only crowd. He found a way to make his passion for golf profitable by offering his own signature line of golf balls. Shrewd investments had greatly increased Martin's personal wealth; at the time of his death, Martin was reportedly the single largest minority shareholder of RCA stock. Martin even managed to cure himself of his claustrophobia by reportedly locking himself in the elevator of a tall building and riding up and down for hours until he was no longer panic-stricken.^{[citation needed]}

Now comfortable financially, Martin did not need to work as much and he began reducing his schedule. The final (1973–74) season of his variety show would be retooled into one of celebrity roasts, requiring less of Martin's involvement. After the show's cancellation, NBC continued to air The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast format in a series of TV specials through 1984. In those 11 years, Martin and his panel of pals successfully ridiculed and made fun of these legendary stars in this order: Ronald Reagan, Hugh Hefner, Ed McMahon, William Conrad, Kirk Douglas, Bette Davis, Barry Goldwater, Johnny Carson, Wilt Chamberlain, Hubert Humphrey, Carroll O'Connor, Monty Hall, Jack Klugman & Tony Randall, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Leo Durocher, Truman Capote, Don Rickles, Ralph Nader, Jack Benny, Redd Foxx, Bobby Riggs, George Washington, Dan Rowan & Dick Martin, Hank Aaron, Joe Namath, Bob Hope, Telly Savalas, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Sammy Davis Jr, Michael Landon, Evel Knievel, Valerie Harper, Muhammad Ali, Dean Martin, Dennis Weaver, Joe Garagiola, Danny Thomas, Angie Dickinson, Gabe Kaplan, Ted Knight, Peter Marshall, Dan Haggerty, Frank Sinatra, Jack Klugman, Jimmy Stewart, George Burns, Betty White, Suzanne Somers, Joan Collins, and Mr T. For nearly a decade, Martin had recorded as many as four albums a year for Reprise Records. That stopped in November 1974, when Martin recorded his final Reprise album - Once In A While, released in 1978. His last recording sessions were for Warner Brothers Records. An album titled The Nashville Sessions was released in 1983, from which he had a hit with "(I Think That I Just Wrote) My First Country Song", which was recorded with Conway Twitty and made a respectable showing on the country charts. A followup single "L.A. Is My Home" / "Drinking Champagne" came in 1985. The 1975 film Mr. Ricco marked Martin's final starring role, and Martin limited his live performances to Las Vegas and Atlantic City.^{[citation needed]}

Martin seemed to suffer a mid-life crisis. In 1972, he filed for divorce from his second wife, Jeanne. A week later, his business partnership with the Riviera was dissolved amid reports of the casino's refusal to agree to Martin's request to perform only once a night. He was quickly snapped up by the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and signed a three-picture deal with MGM Studios. Less than a month after his second marriage had been legally dissolved, Martin married 26-year-old Catherine Hawn on April 25, 1973. Hawn had been the receptionist at the chic Gene Shacrove hair salon in Beverly Hills. They divorced November 10, 1976. He was also briefly engaged to Gail Renshaw, Miss World-U.S.A. 1969.

Eventually, Martin reconciled with Jeanne, though they never remarried. He also made a public reconciliation with Jerry Lewis on Lewis' Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon in 1976. Frank Sinatra shocked Lewis and the world by bringing Martin out on stage. As Martin and Lewis embraced, the audience erupted in cheers and the phone banks lit up, resulting in one of the telethon's most profitable years. Lewis reported the event was one of the three most memorable of his life. Lewis brought down the house when he quipped, "So, you working?" Martin, playing drunk, replied that he was "at the Meggum" – this reference to the MGM Grand Hotel convulsed Lewis.^{[citation needed]} This, along with the death of Martin's son Dean Paul Martin a few years later, helped to bring the two men together. They maintained a quiet friendship, but only performed together again once, in 1989, on Martin's 72nd birthday.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Martin was married three times. Martin's first wife, Elizabeth Anne McDonald, tried by all accounts to be a good wife and mother to their four children, but her efforts were ultimately undone by her alcoholism^{[citation needed]}. It remains a matter of speculation whether her alcoholism led to the failure of the marriage, or whether Martin's infidelities led to Betty's alcoholism. Subsequent to their divorce, Martin gained custody of their children; Betty lived out her life in quiet obscurity in San Francisco. Their children were Stephen Craig (born June 29, 1942), Claudia Dean (March 16, 1944 - 2001 from breast cancer), Barbara Gail (born April 11, 1945) and Deana (Dina) (born August 19, 1948).

Martin's second wife was Jeanne Biegger. A stunning blonde, Jeanne could sometimes be spotted in Martin's audience while he was still married to Betty. Their marriage lasted 24 years (1949–1973) and produced three children. Their children were Dean Paul (November 17, 1951 - March 21, 1987; plane crash), Ricci James (born September 20, 1953) and Gina Caroline (born December 20, 1956), whose marriage made Dean the father-in-law of The Beach Boys' Carl Wilson.

Martin's third marriage, to Catherine Hawn, lasted three years. One of Martin's managers had spotted her at the reception desk of a hair salon on Rodeo Drive, then arranged a meeting. Martin adopted Hawn's daughter, Sasha, but their marriage also failed. Martin initiated divorce proceedings.

Martin's uncle was Leonard Barr, who appeared in several of his shows.

Later years and death[link]

Dean Martin's grave

On December 1, 1983 while gambling at the Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City, Martin and Sinatra intimidated the dealer and several employees into breaking New Jersey law by making the dealer deal the cards by hand instead of from a shoe. Although Sinatra and Martin were implicated as the cause of the violation, neither was fined by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. The Golden Nugget received a $25,000 fine (which Sinatra paid, stating that it was his responsibility as he and Martin were the cause of the fine) and four employees including the dealer, a supervisor and pit boss were suspended from their jobs without pay.

Martin returned to films briefly with appearances in the two star-laden, yet critically panned Cannonball Run movies. He also had a minor hit single with "Since I Met You Baby" and made his first music video, which appeared on MTV. The video was created by Martin's youngest son, Ricci.

On March 21, 1987, Martin's son, Dean Paul (formerly Dino of the '60s "teeny-bopper" rock group Dino, Desi & Billy), was killed when his F-4 Phantom II jet fighter crashed while flying with the California Air National Guard. A much-touted tour with Davis and Sinatra in 1988 sputtered. On one occasion, he infuriated Sinatra when he turned to him and muttered, "Frank, what the hell are we doing up here?" Martin, who always responded best to a club audience, felt lost in the huge stadiums they were performing in (at Sinatra's insistence), and he was not interested in drinking until dawn after performances. His final Vegas shows were at Bally's Hotel in 1990. There he had his final reunion with Jerry Lewis on his 72nd birthday. Martin's last two TV appearances involved tributes to his former Rat Pack members. On December 8, 1989, he joined many stars of the entertainment industry in Sammy Davis, Jr's 60th anniversary celebration, which aired only a few weeks before Davis died from throat cancer. In December 1990, he congratulated Frank Sinatra on his 75th birthday special.

Martin was diagnosed with lung cancer at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in September 1993, and in early 1995 retired from public life. He died of acute respiratory failure resulting from emphysema at his Beverly Hills home on Christmas morning 1995, at age 78.^[12] The lights of the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honor.

Martin is buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Tributes and legacy[link]

In 1996, Ohio Rte. 7, through Steubenville, was rededicated as "Dean Martin Boulevard." Road signs bearing an Al Hirschfeld caricature of Martin's likeness officially designate the stretch, along with a state historical marker, in the Gazebo Park at Route 7 and North Fourth Street.

An annual "Dean Martin Festival" celebration is held in Steubenville. Impersonators, friends and family of Martin, and various entertainers, many of Italian ancestry, appear.

In 2005, Clark County, Nevada renamed Industrial Road as Dean Martin Drive. A similarly named street was dedicated in 2008 in Rancho Mirage, California.

Martin's family was presented a gold record in 2004 for Dino: The Essential Dean Martin, his fastest-selling album ever, which also hit the iTunes Top 10. For the week ending December 23, 2006, the Dean Martin and Martina McBride duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" reached #7 on the R&R AC chart. It also went to #36 on the R&R Country chart - the last time Martin had a song this high in the charts was in 1965, with the song "I Will", which reached #10 on the Pop chart.

An album of duets, Forever Cool, was released by Capitol/EMI in 2007. It features Martin's voice with Kevin Spacey, Shelby Lynne, Joss Stone, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Robbie Williams, McBride and others.

His footprints were immortalized at Grauman's Chinese Theater in 1964. Martin has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one at 6519 Hollywood Boulevard, for movies; one at 1617 Vine, for recordings; and one at 6651 Hollywood Boulevard, for television.

In February 2009, Martin was honored with a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Four of his surviving children, Gail, Deana, Ricci and Gina, were on hand to accept on his behalf. In 2009, Martin was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Popular culture[link]

A number of Dean Martin songs have constantly been featured across popular culture for decades. Hit songs such as "Ain't That a Kick in the Head", "Sway","You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You", "That's Amore", and Martin's signature song "Everybody Loves Somebody" (and many more) have been used in films (such as the Oscar-winning Logorama, A Bronx Tale, Casino, Goodfellas, Payback, and Return to Me), television series (such as American Dad!, Friends, and House MD), video games (such as The Godfather: The Game, The Godfather II, Fallout: New Vegas, and Mafia II), and even fashion shows (such as the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2008).

In film and television[link]

• In a 1996 episode of the NBC-TV series Boston Common, actor Anthony Clark pantomimes and dances a routine to Martin's 1960 song, "Ain't That A Kick In The Head?"
• In That '70s show episode, S-6/E-2 "Join Together." When the Forman's were throwing away all of their bad foods and drinks, because of Red's Heart Attack. Red's beloved beer and his meats were taken away and Red's Fresh mouth son, Eric said,"Whoa look at this, it looks like Dean Martin exploded!"
• In the movie A Bronx Tale, Martin's song, "Ain't That A Kick In The Head?", was featured during the scene when C was playing dice.
• A Budweiser TV commercial that premiered during Super Bowl XLI featured Martin's "Ain't That A Kick In The Head?".
• British actor Jeremy Northam portrayed the entertainer in a made-for-TV movie called, Martin and Lewis, alongside Will & Grace's Sean Hayes as Jerry Lewis.
• Martin was portrayed by Joe Mantegna in an HBO movie about Sinatra and Martin titled The Rat Pack. Mantegna was nominated for both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the role.
• In the movie Return to Me, three of his recordings are featured: "Good Morning, Life," "Buona Sera" and "Return to Me".
• Danny Gans portrayed Martin in the miniseries Sinatra.
• In the pilot episode of White Collar, Peter refers to Neal as "Dino", referencing the newly-found Sy Devore suits that Neal now wears – made famous by the "Rat Pack".
• In the movie Pulp Fiction, Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega go out to dinner at "Jack Rabbit Slim's" – she chooses "Martin and Lewis", and a $5 milkshake shows up.
• In the movie Moonstruck, Martin's recording of "That's Amore" plays over both the opening and closing credits.
• In the HBO television series, The Sopranos, in season 6 episode "Johnny Cakes", "That's Amore" is heard when Vito Spatafore is cooking.
• In the Wong Kar-Wai movie 2046, Martin's recording of "Sway" is played extensively.
• In a Royal Automobile Club commercial, "Memories are Made of This" is sung.
• In the 2009, 60's-era French parody film, "OSS 117: Rio Ne Répond Plus... (Lost in Rio)" starring Jean Dujardin, Martin's "Gentle On My Mind" plays during the opening credits scene
• In the 2011 film, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Martin's song "Ain't That A Kick In The Head?" is used by Cruise to arouse his fellow prisoner's into a riot.

In games and gambling[link]

• Martin is the subject of "Dean Martin's Wild Party", a video slot machine found in some casinos. The game features songs sung by Martin during the bonus game and the count-up of a player's winnings.
• The 2010 video game, Fallout: New Vegas, features Martin's "Ain't that a Kick in the Head?" throughout the game. It can be listened to on the "New Vegas" radio channel and heard on the loud speakers when entering the Vegas Strip. The first quest of the game is named after the same song, as the player character is afflicted with a headshot wound.
• Dean Martin's music is featured on the radios in the video games Mafia II and Godfather II.

In music[link]

• A compilation album called, Amore!, debuted at Number One on Billboard magazine's Top Pop Catalog Albums chart in its February 21, 2009 issue.

Other[link]

• In the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2008, "Ain't That A Kick In The Head?" was the opening song from the show.

Discography[link]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Arthur Marx. Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime (Especially Himself): The story of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, New York, NY: Hawthorn Books, 1974, ISBN 978-0-8015-2430-1
• Lewis, Jerry and James Kaplan. Dean & Me (A Love Story). Doubleday, New York, 2005. ISBN 0-7679-2086-4
• Tosches, Nick. Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams. Delta Trade Paperbacks, New York, 1992 (1st edition). ISBN 0-385-33429-X
• Smith, John L. The Animal in Hollywood: Anthony Fiato's Life in the Mafia. Barricade Books, New York, 1998. ISBN 1-56980-126-6

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dean Martin

• Dean Martin at the Internet Movie Database
• Dean Martin at The Biography Channel
• Cleveland.com: Homegrown Heroes: Dean Martin Timeline
• Dean Works the room at the Sands
• Dean Martin biography/discography on The Interlude Era site
• Radio interview with Deana Martin WSLR

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2009)

Graham Norton
Norton in May 2010
Birth name	Graham William Walker
Born	(1963-04-04) 4 April 1963 (age 49) Clondalkin, Dublin, Ireland
Medium	Television, radio, stand-up
Nationality	Irish
Years active	1992–present
Genres	Observational comedy
Subject(s)	Everyday life, pop culture, current events, celebrities, sex
Notable works and roles	So Graham Norton V Graham Norton The Graham Norton Effect Graham Norton's Bigger Picture The Graham Norton Show

Graham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton, (born 4 April 1963)^[1] is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist. He is the host of comedy chat programme The Graham Norton Show on BBC One in the UK and BBC America in the US. Hot Press has described him as "the 21st century's answer to Terry Wogan", with both men sharing an Irish background and the common link of being a BBC Radio 2 presenter and the BBC television commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest.^[2] Norton has won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Entertainment Performance on five occassions.

Early life and career[link]

Norton was born in Clondalkin, a suburb of Dublin, but grew up in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland to a Protestant family. He was educated at Bandon Grammar School, in County Cork and then University College Cork but did not complete his studies.

In 1992 his stand-up comedy drag act in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a tea-towel clad Mother Teresa of Calcutta made the press when Scottish Television's religious affairs department mistakenly thought he represented the real Mother Teresa.^[3]

His first appearances in broadcasting were in his spot as a regular comedian and panellist on the BBC Radio 4 show Loose Ends, when the show ran on Saturday mornings, in the early 1990s. His rise to fame began as one of the early successes of Channel 5, when he won an award for his performance as the stand-in host of a late-night TV talk show usually presented by Jack Docherty.^[4][5] This was followed by a comic quiz show on Channel 5 called Bring Me the Head of Light Entertainment, which was not well received as a programme, but did further enhance Norton's individual reputation as a comic and TV host. In 1996, Norton co-hosted the late-night quiz show Carnal Knowledge on ITV with Maria McErlane.

In 1996, Norton played the part of Father Noel Furlong in three episodes ("Hell", "Flight Into Terror", "The Mainland") of the Channel 4 series Father Ted. Father Noel Furlong was often seen taking charge of a small youth folk-group.

Channel 4[link]

After this early success, Norton moved to Channel 4 to host his own chat shows including So Graham Norton and V Graham Norton. As a performer who is not only openly gay,^[6] but also camp and flamboyant, it was here that Norton's act was fully honed as a cheeky, innuendo-laden joker.

In 2003, he was the subject of controversy when, on his show on Channel 4, he made a comedic reference to the recent death of Bee Gees singer Maurice Gibb. The Independent Television Commission investigated after complaints about this insensitivity were forwarded to it and eventually Channel 4 had to make two apologies: one in the form of a caption slide before the show, another from Norton in person.

Also in 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. (Though Norton is Irish, the bulk of his television career has been in the UK.)

In the summer of 2004, Norton moved across the Atlantic to start a new venture in American television. The Graham Norton Effect debuted on 24 June 2004 on Comedy Central, and was also broadcast in the UK on BBC Three. In the midst of controversy surrounding Janet Jackson's Super Bowl performance, Norton was wary of moving into the market.^[7]

BBC[link]

Norton at 2009 BAFTA awards

In 2005, Norton moved to the BBC and began hosting the Saturday evening reality TV series Strictly Dance Fever on BBC One, as well as a new comedy chat show, Graham Norton's Bigger Picture. He also read stories some nights on the BBC children's channel CBeebies as part of Bedtime Hour.

In 2006, Norton hosted the BBC One series How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? in which Andrew Lloyd Webber tried to find a lead actress for his West End version of The Sound of Music. Norton has subsequently presented the 3 follow-up series: Any Dream Will Do in 2007, in which a group of males competed to win the role of Joseph in the West End production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; I'd Do Anything in 2008, in which Andrew Lloyd Webber seeks to find the part of Nancy and Oliver for Sir Cameron Mackintosh's production of Lionel Bart's Oliver!; and Over the Rainbow in 2010, following a similar format to find a new Dorothy for a Wizard of Oz West end Production.

Norton hosted various other shows for the BBC during this time, including When Will I Be Famous? (2007), The One and Only (2008) and Totally Saturday (2009). Since 2007, Norton has also been a regular host of The British Academy Television Awards. On 7 July 2007, Norton presented at Live Earth and undertook a trip to Ethiopia with the Born Free Foundation to highlight the plight of the Ethiopian wolf – the rarest canid in the world. In the same year, he was the subject of an episode of the BBC1 genealogy documentary Who Do You Think You Are?.

Norton's chat show, The Graham Norton Show, began on 22 February 2007 on BBC Two. Although in a format that he had not been involved in for 4 years, it is very similar to his previous Channel 4 shows. On 6 October 2009, the show moved to BBC One, in a new one-hour format.

In May 2010, he stood in for Chris Evans' breakfast show on BBC Radio 2. Later that month, it was confirmed that he would be replacing Jonathan Ross's Saturday morning slot on the same station.

In December 2011, the panel show Would You Rather...? with Graham Norton premiered on BBC America in the time slot immediately following The Graham Norton Show. Recorded in New York, it is one of BBC America's earliest efforts at producing original programming, and is also the first panel game the channel has shown, either of British or American origin.

In January 2012, he called on listeners to his Radio 2 show to help find his car hours after it was stolen. He called it "The Great Car Hunt" and told listeners to “Keep your eyes out for it. It was filthy by the way."

Eurovision[link]

Norton with Josh Dubovie at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

Norton hosted the first annual Eurovision Dance Contest alongside Claudia Winkleman which was held on 1 September 2007 in London, England. The format was based on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing and the EBU's Eurovision Song Contest. Norton and Winkleman also hosted the 2008 Contest in Glasgow, Scotland.

In October 2008, it was confirmed by the BBC that Norton would replace Terry Wogan as the BBC's presenter for the UK heats of the Eurovision Song Contest, in a show to be called Your Country Needs You.

On 5 December 2008 it was announced that Norton would also take over from Wogan as the presenter of the main Eurovision Song Contest.^[8] The 54th Eurovision Song Contest was held in the Olimpiyskiy (Olympic) Stadium, Moscow on 16 May 2009.

Norton's jokes during his debut received some positive reviews from the British media. The Guardian noted his comments on Iceland's entry, which finished in second place, had "rooted around in a cupboard and found an old bridesmaid dress from 1987" and the Armenian singers, who finished in tenth place, were sporting traditional dress, "which would be true if you come from the village where Liberace is the mayor."^[9] The Times noted his highlighting of the arrest of thirty gay rights protesters in Moscow – "heavy-handed policing has really marred what has been a fantastic Eurovision."^[9]

His comment “The bad news is you’re about to watch Albania. She’s only 17 so please bear that in mind. Where was her mother? Why didn’t she step in and say no?” which was made just before Albanian singer Kejsi Tola was set to take the stage dubbed an insult by many, sent ripples of outrage through not only Albania, but also the Albanian population in Britain. He then announced that Albania should get no points and that he didn't care what anybody else thought. There was a petition circling the net calling for a formal apology from Norton. The petition, which called his comment “very rude and insulting,” had drawn over 1,000 signatures. He never responded.^[10]

In 2011, he snarked that if Jedward's entry into the competition that year won, the twins would never sleep again. In the end, they were eighth. Earlier in that year's televote, he joked "Quick, someone take a picture", when The British entry that year went temporarily in the lead early on after high votes from Russia(4), Bulgaria(12) and Italy(10). In the end, the song dropped down the 11th, earning 100 points. Very annoyed, Norton claimed 'We were better than Jedward'.

In 2012, Norton joked about the Spanish singer Pastora Soler and the economic situation of Spain. This statements unleashed many bad reviews on the internet. Norton joked about Rona Nishliu (the singer of Albania) too. He said that Rona was a singer that "she shout a lot".

Other[link]

In July 2000 Graham was one of three judges of the Miss Lesbian Beauty Contest 2000 held at The Talk of London, Drury Lane. The contest was won by 42 year old Carol Hutchins who wowed the audience with her sit-down comedy routine from a wheelchair. Graham described Carol as a "very bright, funny lady."

Graham Norton played Mr. Puckov in the 2006 American comedy spoof film Another Gay Movie. In 2007, Norton played Taylor in the romantic comedy film I Could Never Be Your Woman.

Norton was involved in a high-publicity advertising campaign for the UK National Lottery as an animated unicorn, the stooge to a character based on Lady Luck (played by Fay Ripley). He has also advertised McVitie's biscuits.

In 2007, Norton featured in Girls Aloud and Sugababes' Comic Relief video for the single "Walk This Way."

In January 2009, Norton made his West End stage debut in a revival of La Cage Aux Folles at the Playhouse Theatre.

Since 2009, Norton has been the host of the comedy game-show Most Popular on US cable television channel WE tv.^[11]

Norton currently writes an advice column in The Daily Telegraph newspaper. In October 2010, these columns were made into a book entitled Ask Graham, published by John Blake Publishing.

Personal life[link]

Norton with a dog in 2006, supporting Crusaid.

Norton has stated that he felt "out of place" growing up in Ireland; his family are Protestant yet the Republic of Ireland is overwhelmingly Catholic. Norton took part in the TV programme, Who Do You Think You Are?, to trace his ancestry. It was discovered that his family were originally planters sent over from England to take over Irish land. Some members of his family had fought for the British Monarchy during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and taken part in a massacre of Catholics in Carnew Castle. Another member of his family was later killed in battle by the United Irishmen. Norton said he was comforted to find out that his family had resided in Ireland for generations.^[12]

In 1989 while living in London, Norton was mugged, beaten and stabbed by a group of attackers on the street. He says he lost half his blood and nearly died, and he was hospitalised for two and a half weeks.^[13][14]

Norton is openly gay.^[6][15][16]

Norton owns a holiday home in Ahakista, County Cork, which is near to where he grew up, in Bandon. The house has a private beach and overlooks Dunmanus Bay.

TV appearances[link]

Main presenting credits[link]

• Carnal Knowledge (TV series, co-presenter) (1996, 27 one hour shows)
• Bring Me the Head of Light Entertainment
• So Graham Norton (1998–2002)
• V Graham Norton (2002–2003)
• NY Graham Norton (2004)
• The Graham Norton Effect (2004–2005)
• Graham Norton's Bigger Picture (2005–2006)
• Strictly Dance Fever (2005–2006)
• BBC/Andrew Lloyd Webber musical theater talent searches (2006–present)
  • How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? (2006)
  • Any Dream Will Do (2007)
  • I'd Do Anything (2008)
  • Over the Rainbow (2010)
• The Big Finish (2006–)
• When Will I Be Famous? (2007)
• The Graham Norton Show (2007–present)
• The British Academy Television Awards (2007)
• Live Earth (2007)
• Eurovision Dance Contest (2007)
• The One and Only (2008)
• Eurovision Dance Contest (2008)
• Eurovision: Your Country Needs You (2009–present)
• Eurovision Song Contest (UK commentator, 2009–present)
• Totally Saturday (2009)
• Most Popular (2009–present)
• Would You Rather...? with Graham Norton (BBC America, 2011–present)

Other television credits[link]

Radio[link]

• Just a Minute

Sitting in for Steve Wright August 2009 BBC Radio 2

Sitting in for Chris Evans May /July 2010 BBC Radio 2

On 2 October 2010, he began his weekly BBC Radio 2 Saturday show taking over from Jonathan Ross. The show airs from 10.00am-1.00pm and combines a mixture of music, chat and celebrity guests.

2011/12 Radio 2 Saturday mornings

Filmography[link]

Stand-Up videos[link]

• Live At The Roundhouse (19 November 2001)

Awards[link]

• 1999 : Gaytime Award for Gay Entertainer of the Year
• 2000 : BAFTA Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance – So Graham Norton
• 2001 : BAFTA Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance - So Graham Norton
• 2001 : RTS Television Award for Best Presenter – So Graham Norton
• 2001 : TRIC Award TV Personality of the Year
• 2002 : BAFTA Television Award for Best Entertainment Perfromance - So Graham Norton
• 2011 : BAFTA Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance – The Graham Norton Show ^[17]
• 2012 : BAFTA Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance - The Graham Norton Show

References[link]

External links[link]

• Graham Norton Radio 2 at BBC Programmes
• The Graham Norton Show at BBC Programmes
• Graham Norton at the Internet Movie Database
• Graham Norton at the British Film Institute's Screenonline

Sandi Toksvig
Sandi Toksvig in 2009
Born	Sandra Brigitte Toksvig (1958-05-03) 3 May 1958 (age 54) Copenhagen, Denmark
Occupation	Author, comedienne, presenter

Sandra Brigitte "Sandi" Toksvig (born 3 May 1958) is a Danish/British comedienne, author and presenter on British radio and television.

Career[link]

Born in Copenhagen, Toksvig began her comedy career at Girton College, Cambridge University, where she wrote and performed in the first all-woman show at the Footlights. She was there at the same time as fellow members Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery, and Emma Thompson, and wrote additional material for the Perrier award-winning Cambridge Footlights Revue. She was also a member of Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society, and moved via children's television onto the comedy circuit. She performed at the first night of The Comedy Store in London and was once part of The Comedy Store Players, an improvisational comedy team.^[1]

Her television career included presenting the children's series No. 73 (1982–1986) as a character called Ethel Davis, also presenting the Sandwich Quiz,^[3] The Saturday Starship, Motormouth and Gilbert's Fridge, and on factual programmes such as the archaeological Channel 4 series Time Team, Island Race, and The Talking Show, produced by Open Media for Channel 4. She has appeared as a panellist in shows such as Call My Bluff (a regular as a team captain), I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Mock the Week, QI and Have I Got News for You. She appeared in the very first episode of Have I Got News For You in 1990.^[4] She was the host of What the Dickens, a Sky Arts quiz show. For the last two years she has been the executive producer of Playhouse Live for Sky Arts, producing specially commissioned live drama for television. In 2011 she is executive producing six new films for Sky Arts and is the host of a second season of BBC2's Antiques Master.

In 1996, she narrated the Dragons! interactive CD-ROM, along with Harry Enfield.^[5] The software was primarily aimed at children and featured songs and poems about dragons.

She is a familiar voice for BBC Radio 4 listeners, as the chair of The News Quiz, having replaced Simon Hoggart in September 2006. She continues to be the main presenter of its travel programme Excess Baggage. For three years until December 2005 she presented a weekday lunchtime programme on London talk radio station LBC 97.3, featuring regular guests including Bonnie Langford, Alkarim Jivani, and Annie Caulfield.

Toksvig performing in 2008

In 2002, Toksvig and Dilly Keane co-wrote a musical Big Night Out, at the Little Palace Theatre, written for the Watford Palace Theatre, in which they appeared with Bonnie Langford.^[6] Toksvig and Elly Brewer wrote a Shakespeare deconstruction, The Pocket Dream, which Toksvig performed in at the Nottingham Playhouse and which transferred to the West End for a short run. The pair also wrote the 1992 TV series The Big One, which also starred Toksvig. She has appeared in a number of stage plays, including Androcles and the Lion, Much Ado About Nothing and The Comedy of Errors. Most recently Toksvig wrote a play entitled Bully Boy which focused on post traumatic stress among British servicemen. The play premiered at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton in May 2011 and starred Anthony Andrews.

She wrote several fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults, starting in 1994 with Tales from the Norse's Mouth, a fiction tale for children. In 1995, she sailed around the coast of Britain with John McCarthy. In 2003, she published her travel biography, Gladys Reunited: A Personal American Journey, about her travels in the USA retracing her childhood. She writes regular columns for Good Housekeeping, the Sunday Telegraph and The Lady. In October 2008 she published Girls Are Best, a history book for girls. In 2009 her collected columns for the Sunday Telegraph were published in book form as The Chain of Curiosity.

She appeared in Doctor Who audio drama Red by Big Finish Productions, released in August 2006.

In December 2006, she hosted and sang at the London Gay Men's Chorus sold out Christmas show, Make the Yuletide Gay at the Barbican Centre.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007 she was named Political Humorist of the Year at the Channel 4 Political Awards^[7] and Radio Broadcaster of the Year by the Broadcasting Press Guild.^[8] Over Christmas and New Year 2007/8 she played the narrator in the pantomime Cinderella at the Old Vic Theatre. In 2008 she was named Broadcaster of the Year at the Stonewall Awards. In 2009 she received the Voice of the Viewer and Listener Award for Individual Contribution to Radio. In 2010 she was awarded an honorary PhD by the University of Portsmouth.

In October 2011, she Narrated a concert of the new musical Soho Cinders at the Queen's Theatre, London.

In January 2012 it was announced that she would succeed Sheila Hancock as Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth.^[9]

Politics and activism[link]

Sandi Toksvig has been a supporter of the Liberal Democrats.^[10]

In 2003 she stood as a candidate in the election for the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, supporting a campaign against student fees.^[11] She was defeated in the first round of voting, achieving 1,179 first-place votes out of about 8,000 cast.^[12] The election was won by Chris Patten.

Personal life[link]

Her father, Claus Toksvig was a foreign correspondent for the Danish television channel Danmarks Radio so Sandi spent most of her youth outside Denmark. In 1969, while her father was covering the Apollo 11 Mission, Sandi held hands with Neil Armstrong's secretary as he stepped on to the moon.^[13] She studied law, archaeology, and anthropology at Girton College, Cambridge graduating with a first class degree and receiving two prizes for outstanding achievement (The Raemakers and the Theresa Montefiore Awards). Her brother, Nick Toksvig, attended Hull University and was a friend of journalist and Beirut hostage John McCarthy, with whom Sandi undertook a yachting adventure around Britain in 1995. Her sister Jenifer Toksvig is a musical theatre bookwriter and lyricist.

She is a lesbian and mother of three children; two daughters, Jessica and Megan^[15] (born 1988 and 1990) and a son Theo ^[16] (born 1994). The children were carried and borne by her then partner, Peta Stewart,^[14] and were conceived through artificial insemination by donor Christopher Lloyd-Pack.^[17]

In 1994 charity Save the Children dropped her services as compere of its 75th-anniversary celebrations after she came out,^[17] but following a direct action protest by the Lesbian Avengers,^[18] the charity apologised.^[19] She lives with her civil partner, psychotherapist Debbie Toksvig.^[15]

References in popular culture[link]

• In Little Britain, starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams, the character Bernard Chumley lives in a building called Sandi Toksvig House.^[20]
• In the BBC comedy Gavin and Stacey, Stacey's mother assumes the alias Sandi Toksvig in a fake interview.
• During the performance of Bottom Live, Rik Mayall's character 'Richie' states that Sandi Toksvig brings out his eczema. 'Richie' enters the room and remarks: "Er, pooh, what's that disgusting smell? Have you been saying "Sandi Toksvig"again? ... you know it brings on my eczema."

Bibliography[link]

Books for children[link]

• Hitlers Kanarie, Sandi Toksvig, Valerius uitgeverij, Vlaardingen, Holland, April 2006, ISBN 90-78250-02-X [Dutch translation]
• Sandi Toksvig (2005). Hitler's Canary. Doubleday. ISBN 03-85608-89-6. 
• Sandi Toksvig (2000). The Troublesome Tooth Fairy. Transworld. ISBN 0-552-54663-1. 
• Sandi Toksvig (2000). Super-Saver Mouse to the Rescue. Transworld. ISBN 0-552-54541-4. 
• Sandi Toksvig (1999). Super-Saver Mouse. Transworld. ISBN 0-552-54540-6. 
• Sandi Toksvig (1998). If I Didn't Have Elbows. Deagosti. ISBN 1-84089-048-7. 
• Sandi Toksvig (1997). Unusual Day. Transworld/Corgi. ISBN 0-552-54539-2. 
• Sandi Toksvig (1994). Tales from the Norse's Mouth. BBC Books. ISBN 0-563-40358-6. 

Books for adults[link]

• Sandi Toksvig (2006). Melted into Air. Little Brown. ISBN 0-316-86117-0. 
• Sandi Toksvig (2003). Gladys Reunited: A Personal American Journey. Little Brown. ISBN 0-7515-3328-9. 
• Sandi Toksvig; Sandy Nightingale (2002). The Travels of Lady Bulldog Burton. Little Brown. ISBN 0-316-86007-7. 
• Sandi Toksvig (2001). Flying Under Bridges. Little Brown. ISBN 0-316856-35-5. 
• Sandi Toksvig (1999). Whistling for the Elephants. Transworld. ISBN 0-593-04480-0. 
• Sandi Toksvig; et al (1994). Great Journeys of the World. BBC Books. ISBN 0-563370-50-5. 
• John McCarthy; Sandi Toksvig (1995). Island Race: an Improbable Voyage Round the Coast of Britain. BBC Books. ISBN 0-563-37053-X. 

See also[link]

• Call My Bluff
• Just a Minute
• I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
• The News Quiz
• What the Dickens
• No. 73
• Tormead School

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sandi Toksvig at the Internet Movie Database
• MusicalTalk Podcast featuring interview with Sandi Toksvig and Bonnie Langford
• Profile at the Now You're Talking speaker agency
• LBC 97.3 radio show related blog (no longer maintained)
• 'Great Women'. A fanfare of Fabulous Females by Sandi Toksvig & Sandy Nightingale
• On-line serialised version of 'The Travels of Lady Bulldog Burton' by Sandi Toksvig & Sandy Nightingale

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John Cusack
Cusack at the Comic-Con 2011
Born	John Paul Cusack (1966-06-28) June 28, 1966 (age 45) Evanston, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, producer, writer
Years active	1983–present
Parents	Dick Cusack (deceased), Nancy Cusack
Family	Ann Cusack (sister), Joan Cusack (sister), Bill Cusack (brother), Susie Cusack (sister)

John Paul Cusack (born June 28, 1966) is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Pointe Blank, The Thin Red Line, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, and 1408.

Early life[link]

Cusack was born in Evanston, Illinois, to an Irish-American Catholic family.^[1][2] His mother, Ann Paula "Nancy" (née Carolan), is a former mathematics teacher and political activist.^[3][4] His father, Dick Cusack (1925–2003), was an actor, as are his siblings, Ann, Joan, Bill, and Susie.^[5] His father was also a documentary filmmaker,^[6] owned a film production company,^[7] and was a friend of activist Philip Berrigan.^[8] Cusack spent a year at New York University before dropping out, saying that he had "too much fire in [his] belly".^[9]

Career[link]

Cusack gained fame in the mid-1980s after appearing in teen movies such as Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, One Crazy Summer, and Sixteen Candles. Cusack made a cameo in the 1988 music video for "Trip At The Brain" by Suicidal Tendencies. In 1989 he starred as Lloyd Dobler in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything.... His roles broadened in the late 1980s and early 1990s with more serious-minded fare such as the politically themed True Colors and the film noir thriller The Grifters. He was later offered the role of the title character of Fred in the film Drop Dead Fred, but dropped out due to a death in his family.

Cusack experienced box office success with his roles in the dark comedy Grosse Pointe Blank and the Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster Con Air. In the years since, his range of films has diversified, appearing in roles such as an obsessive puppeteer in Being John Malkovich, a lovelorn record store owner in High Fidelity, and a Jewish art dealer mentoring a young Adolf Hitler in Max. He starred in the horror film 1408, based on Stephen King's short story of the same name. He next appeared as a widowed father in the Iraq War-themed drama Grace is Gone and as assassin Brand Hauser in the dark political satire, War, Inc., along with Hilary Duff and Marisa Tomei.

His sister Joan Cusack and close friend Jeremy Piven have appeared in many of his films. The siblings appeared as two geeks in Sixteen Candles: John as one of Farmer Ted's posse, and Joan as the geek with the neck brace. They also appeared together in Say Anything, Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity, Cradle Will Rock, Martian Child, and War, Inc.. Piven and Cusack play opposite one another in One Crazy Summer, Serendipity, Say Anything, and Grosse Pointe Blank. Cusack also had a brief cameo, seen from behind but speaking a line of dialogue, in Broadcast News, in which Joan also appeared. Piven also had roles in The Grifters and Runaway Jury.^[10]

Cusack was next seen in Roland Emmerich's disaster film 2012, which was released in theaters November 13, 2009; he played Jackson Curtis, a struggling novelist and limo driver, with his Identity and Martian Child co-star Amanda Peet. In 2010, Cusack starred in Hot Tub Time Machine, opposite Rob Corddry, Clark Duke, and Craig Robinson. In his latest film, the thriller The Raven, he portrayed Edgar Allen Poe; the film was released on April 27, 2012.

Personal life[link]

John Cusack on the set of Grosse Pointe Blank

Cusack has an allegiance to both the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox, for which, he says, he is "in trouble there for that."^[11] He has led the crowd in a performance of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field.^[11] He has also been spotted at multiple Chicago Bears games and attended many of the Stanley Cup Finals games in support of the Chicago Blackhawks.^[12]

Cusack has trained in kickboxing for over 20 years under former world kickboxing champion Benny “The Jet" Urquidez. He began training under Urquidez in preparation for his role in Say Anything and currently holds the rank of Level 6 black belt in Urquidez’ Ukidokan Kickboxing system.^[13]

Political views[link]

Between 2005 and 2009, John Cusack blogged at The Huffington Post, including an interview with Naomi Klein. He has blogged about on his opposition to the war in Iraq and his disdain for the Bush administration, calling its worldview "depressing, corrupt, unlawful, and tragically absurd".^[14]

He also appeared in a June 2008 MoveOn.org advertisement, where he made the claim that George W. Bush and John McCain have the same governing priorities.^[15]

Stalking incident[link]

In March 2008, police arrested Emily Leatherman outside Cusack's Malibu home for stalking the actor. On October 10, 2008, Leatherman plead no contest and received five years probation and mandatory psychiatric counseling, and was ordered to stay away from Cusack, his home and business for the next 10 years.^[16]

Filmography[link]