name	Dick Cavett
birth name	Richard Alva Cavett
birth date	November 19, 1936
birth place	Gibbon, Nebraska, U.S.
spouse	Carrie Nye (1964-2006; her death)
active	1959–present

}}

Richard Alva Cavett (; born November 19, 1936) — known as Dick Cavett — is a former American television talk show host known for his conversational style and in-depth discussion of issues. Cavett appeared regularly on nationally broadcast television in the United States in five consecutive decades, the 1960s through the 2000s.

In recent years, Cavett has written a blog for the ''New York Times'', promoted DVDs of his former shows, and hosted replays of his classic TV interviews with Groucho Marx, Katharine Hepburn, and others on Turner Classic Movies channel.

Early life

Cavett was born in Nebraska, but sources differ as to the specific town, locating his birthplace in either Gibbon, where his family lived, or nearby Kearney, the location of the nearest hospital. His mother Erabel "Era" (née Richards) and his father Alva B. Cavett both worked as educators. When asked by Lucille Ball on his own show about his heritage, he said he was "Scottish, Irish, English, and possibly partly French, and, and uh, a dose of German." He also mentioned that one grandfather "came over" from England, and the other from Wales. Cavett's grandparents all lived in Grand Island, Nebraska. His paternal grandparents were Alva A. Cavett and Gertrude Pinsch. His paternal grandfather was from Diller, Nebraska and his paternal grandmother was an immigrant from Aachen, Germany. His maternal grandparents were the Rev. R. R. and Etta Mae Richards. Rev. Richards was from Carmarthen, Wales and was a Baptist minister who served parishes across central Nebraska.

Cavett's parents taught in Comstock, Gibbon, and Grand Island, where Cavett started kindergarten at Wasmer Elementary School. Three years later, both of his parents landed teaching positions in Lincoln, Nebraska, where Cavett completed his education at Capitol, Prescott, and Irving schools and Lincoln High School. When Cavett was ten, his mother died of cancer at age 36. His father subsequently married Dorcas Deland, also an educator, originally from Alliance, Nebraska. On September 24, 1995 Lincoln Public Schools dedicated the new Dorcas C. and Alva B. Cavett Elementary School in their honor.

In eighth grade, Cavett directed a live Saturday-morning radio show sponsored by the Junior League and played the title role in ''The Winslow Boy''. One of his high-school classmates was actress Sandy Dennis. Cavett was elected state president of the student council in high school, and was a gold-medalist at the state gymnastics championship.

Before leaving for college, he worked as a caddy at the Lincoln Country Club. He also began performing magic shows for $35 a night under the tutelage of Gene Gloye. In 1952 Cavett attended the convention of the International Brotherhood of Magicians in St. Louis and won the Best New Performer trophy. Around the same time, he met fellow magician Johnny Carson, eleven years his senior, who was doing a magic act at a church in Lincoln.

While attending Yale University, Cavett played in and directed dramas on the campus radio station, WYBC, and appeared in Yale Drama productions. In his senior year, he changed his major from English to Drama. He also took advantage of any opportunity to meet stars, routinely going to shows in New York to hang around stage doors or venture backstage. He would go so far as to carry a copy of ''Variety'' or an appropriate piece of company stationery in order to look inconspicuous while sneaking backstage or into a TV studio. Cavett took many odd jobs ranging from store detective to label-typist for a Wall Street firm, and as a copy boy at ''Time Magazine''.

Marriage

At Yale School of Drama, Cavett met his future wife, Caroline Nye McGeoy (known professionally as Carrie Nye), a native of Greenwood, Mississippi. After graduation, the two acted in summer theater in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and Cavett worked for two weeks in a local lumberyard in order to buy an engagement ring. On June 4, 1964, they were married in New York. Their marriage was at times tumultuous, but they remained married until Nye's death on July 14, 2006.

In 2010, Cavett married business author Martha Rogers, Ph.D. in a small ceremony in New Orleans, Louisiana.

''The Tonight Show''

In 1960, Cavett was living in a three-room, fifth-floor walk-up on West 89th Street in Manhattan for $51 a month.

He was cast in a film by the Signal Corps, but further jobs were not forthcoming. He was an extra on ''The Phil Silvers Show,'' a TV remake of ''Body and Soul'', and ''Playhouse 90'' ("The Hiding Place"). He briefly revived his magic act while working as a typist and as a mystery shopper in department stores. Meanwhile, Nye landed several Broadway roles.

Cavett was a copyboy (gofer) at ''Time'' when he read a newspaper item about Jack Paar, then host of ''The Tonight Show.'' The article described Paar's concerns about his opening monologue and constant search for material. Cavett wrote some jokes, put them into a ''Time'' envelope, and went to the RCA Building. He ran into Paar in a hallway and handed him the envelope. He then went to sit in the studio audience. During the show, Paar worked in some of the lines Cavett had fed him. Afterward, Cavett got into an elevator with Paar, who invited him to contribute more jokes. Within weeks, Cavett was hired, originally as talent coordinator. Cavett wrote for Paar the famous line, "Here they are, Jayne Mansfield," as an introduction for the buxom actress. Cavett appeared on the show in 1961, interpreting Miss Universe of 1961, Marlene Schmidt of Germany.

While at ''Time,'' Cavett wrote a letter to Stan Laurel. The two later met at Laurel's apartment in Hollywood. Later the same day, Cavett wrote a tribute that Paar read on the show, which Laurel saw and appreciated. Cavett visited Laurel a few more times, up to three weeks before Laurel's death. In his capacity as talent coordinator for ''The Tonight Show'', Cavett was sent to the Blue Angel nightclub to see Woody Allen's act, and immediately afterward struck up a friendship. The very next day, the funeral of playwright George S. Kaufman was held at the Frank E. Campbell funeral home. Allen could not attend, but Cavett did, where he met Groucho Marx in an anteroom. From the funeral, Cavett followed Marx (who later told Cavett that Kaufman was "his personal god") three blocks up Fifth Avenue to the Plaza Hotel, where Marx invited him to lunch. Years later, Cavett gave the introduction to Marx's one-man show, ''An Evening with Groucho Marx'' at Carnegie Hall, and began by saying, "I can't believe that I know Groucho Marx."

Cavett continued with ''The Tonight Show'' as a writer after Johnny Carson assumed hosting duties. For Carson he wrote the line, "Having your taste criticized by Dorothy Kilgallen is like having your clothes criticized by Emmett Kelly." He even appeared to do a gymnastics routine on the pommel horse on the show. After departing ''The Tonight Show'', Cavett wrote for Jerry Lewis's ill-fated talk show, for three times the money. He returned to ''The Tonight Show'', however, when Marx was interim host for Carson in July 1964.

Years later, when he was a guest on ''The Tonight Show'', Carson told Cavett that his favorite joke Cavett wrote for him was the humorous caption to a newspaper photo of Aristotle Onassis looking at the home of Buster Keaton, which he was considering purchasing: "Aristotle Contemplating the Home of Buster."

Stand-up comic

Cavett began a brief career as a stand-up comic in 1964 at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village. His manager was Jack Rollins, who later became famous as the producer of Woody Allen's films.

His most famous line from this period may have been the following:

He also played Mr. Kelly's in Chicago and the Hungry i in San Francisco. In San Francisco, he met Lenny Bruce, about whom he said:

In 1965, Cavett did some commercial voiceovers, including a series of mock interviews with Mel Brooks for Ballantine beer. In the next couple of years he appeared on game shows, including ''What's My Line''. He wrote for Merv Griffin and appeared on Griffin's talk show several times, and then on ''The Ed Sullivan Show''.

In 1968, after the premiere of the international film ''Candy'', Cavett went to a party at the Americana Hotel, where those who had just seen the film were being interviewed for TV.

After doing ''The Star and the Story'', a rejected television pilot with Van Johnson, Cavett hosted a special, ''Where It's At'', for Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear.

In 1968 Cavett was hired by ABC to host ''This Morning''. According to a ''New Yorker'' article, the show was too sophisticated for a morning audience, and ABC first moved the show to prime time, and subsequently to a late-night slot opposite Johnny Carson's ''The Tonight Show''.

''The Dick Cavett Show''

Intermittently since 1968, Cavett has been host of his own talk show, in various formats and on various television and radio networks:

ABC (1968–1974)

CBS (1975)

PBS (1977–1982)

USA (1985–1986)

ABC (1986–1987)

CNBC (1989–1996)

Olympia Broadcasting (syndicated radio show, 1986–1990)

Turner Classic Movies (2006–2007)

Cavett has been nominated for at least ten Emmy Awards and has won three. In 1970, he co-hosted the Emmy Awards Show (from Carnegie Hall in New York) with Bill Cosby (from Century Plaza in Los Angeles). His most popular talk show was his ABC program, which ran from 1969 to 1974. From 1962 to 1992, ''The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson'' was arguably the most popular of late night variety and talk shows. Unlike many contemporary shows, Cavett managed to remain on the air for five years. Although his shows did not attract a wide audience, remaining in third place in the ratings behind Carson and Merv Griffin, he earned a reputation as "the thinking man's talk show host" and received favorable reviews from critics. As a talk show host, Cavett has been noted for his ability to listen to his guests and engage them in intellectual conversation. Clive James described Cavett "as a true sophisticate with a daunting intellectual range" and "the most distinguished talk-show host in America." He is also known for his ability to remain calm and mediate between contentious guests, and for his deep, resonant voice, unusual for a man of his stature (5'7").

His show often focussed on controversial people or subjects, often pairing guests with opposing views on social or political issues, such as Jim Brown and Lester Maddox.

One particularly controversial show from June 1971 featured a debate between future senator and presidential candidate John Kerry and fellow veteran John O'Neill over the Vietnam War. O'Neill had been approached by the Nixon administration to work through the ''Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace'' to counter Kerry's influence on the public. The debate went poorly for the pro-war side, so angering President Nixon that he is heard discussing the incident on the Watergate tapes, saying, "Well, is there any way we can screw him [Cavett]? That's what I mean. There must be ways." To which H. R. Haldeman, White House Chief of Staff, answered, "We've been trying to."

Cavett himself, asked during a Question and Answer segment with his audience in the late '60s why he wore long sideburns, replied, "It's a form of mild protest. Sort of like boiling my draft card."

Cavett also hosted many popular musicians, both in interview and performance, such as Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Several of his Emmy Award nominations and one Emmy Award were for Outstanding Musical or Variety Series, and in 2005 Shout Factory released a selection of performances and interviews on a three DVD set, ''The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons'', showcasing interviews of and performances by musicians who appeared on the Dick Cavett show from 1969 to 1974.

Clips from his TV shows have been used in films, for example ''Annie Hall'' (1977), ''Forrest Gump'' (1994), ''Apollo 13'' (1995), and ''Frequency'' (2000). He also holds the distinction of being the only famous person to actually interact with the title character of ''Forrest Gump'' without the aid of archive footage or computer trickery. Cavett donned a wig and makeup was applied to make him appear as his 1971 self, and he was filmed with Tom Hanks on a recreated set (though archive footage of John Lennon from Cavett's show was digitally added).

Cavett was surprised at footage from his TV show appearing in ''Apollo 13''. He said at the time of the film's release, "I'm happily enjoying a movie, and suddenly I'm in it."

Bouts with depression

Cavett has openly discussed his bouts with clinical depression, an illness that first affected him during his freshman year at Yale. According to an interview published in a 1992 issue of ''People'' magazine, Cavett contacted Dr. Nathan Kline in 1975 seeking treatment. Kline prescribed antidepressant medication, which according to Cavett was successful in treating his depression.

In 1980 Cavett suffered what he characterized as his "biggest depressive episode." While on board a Concorde prior to take off, Cavett broke out into a sweat and became agitated. After he was removed from the plane, Cavett was taken to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, where he later underwent electroconvulsive therapy. Regarding this method of treatment Cavett is quoted as saying, "In my case, ECT was miraculous. My wife was dubious, but when she came into my room afterward, I sat up and said, 'Look who's back among the living.' It was like a magic wand."

He was also the subject of a 1993 video produced by the Depression and Related Affective Disorders Association called ''A Patient's Perspective''.

In 1997 Cavett was sued by producer James Moskovitz for breach of contract after failing to show up for a nationally syndicated radio program (also called ''The Dick Cavett Show''). Cavett's lawyer, Melvyn Leventhal, asserted at the time that Cavett left due to a manic-depressive episode. The case was later dropped.

Other work

Cavett has co-authored two books with Christopher Porterfield: ''Cavett'' (1974), his autobiography, and ''Eye on Cavett'' (1983). Cavett currently writes a blog, published by the ''New York Times'', entitled "Talk Show: Dick Cavett Speaks Again."

He appeared as himself in various other TV shows, including episodes of ''The Odd Couple'', ''Cheers'', ''Kate & Allie'', and ''The Simpsons'' episode ''Homie the Clown''; in Robert Altman's ''HealtH'' (1980), and ''A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors'' (1987). In Tim Burton's ''Beetlejuice'', he played a rare bit part as a character other than himself. Cavett often appeared on television quiz and game shows; he appeared on ''What's My Line?'', ''To Tell the Truth'', ''Password'', ''The $25,000 Pyramid'' and made a special appearance on ''Wheel of Fortune'' in 1989 during their week of shows at Radio City Music Hall, walking on stage after someone solved the puzzle "DICK CAVETT." In 1974, Cavett's company, Daphne Productions, co-produced with Don Lipp Productions a short-lived ABC game show, ''The Money Maze'', although Cavett's name did not appear on the credits.

Cavett was the narrator (on camera and off) for the HBO documentary series ''Time Was''. Each episode covered a decade, ranging from the 1920s to the 1970s, and relied on stock file footage and photographs. The show originally aired in November 1979 and ran for six months with a new show each month.

Cavett also hosted a documentary series for HBO in the early '80s titled ''Remember When...'' that examined changes in American culture over time.

In April, 1981, Cavett traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, to interview the pop group ABBA on the occasion of their tenth anniversary as a group. The special, titled ''Dick Cavett Meets ABBA'', was taped by the Swedish TV network SVT and was broadcast mostly in Europe.

From November 15, 2000, to January 6, 2002, he played the narrator in a Broadway revival of ''The Rocky Horror Show''. He also had a brief stint as the narrator/old man in the Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's ''Into The Woods''.

Dick Cavett is featured in the 2003 documentary ''From the Ashes: The Life and Times of Tick Hall'' about the fire that destroyed his Montauk home and his effort to rebuild it.

Cavett's signature tune has long been a trumpet version of the vocalise "Glitter and Be Gay" from Leonard Bernstein's ''Candide''. The tune was first played at the midpoint of his ABC late-night show, and later became the theme of his PBS show. The tune is also played as he walks on stage during guest appearances on other talk shows.

Cavett was present when actor Marlon Brando broke the jaw of paparazzo photographer Ron Galella on June 12, 1973. Galella had followed Cavett and Brando to a restaurant after the taping of ''The Dick Cavett Show'' in New York City.

In 2008 Cavett entered the Iraq war dispute with a ''New York Times'' blog entry criticizing General David Petraeus, stating "I can’t look at Petraeus — his uniform ornamented like a Christmas tree with honors, medals and ribbons — without thinking of the great Mort Sahl at the peak of his brilliance." Cavett went on to recall Sahl's expressed contempt of General Westmoreland's display of medals, and criticized Petraeus for not speaking in plain language.

Bibliography

''Cavett'' by Dick Cavett and Christopher Porterfield, Bantam Books, August 1974. ISBN 0-15-116130-5

''Eye on Cavett'' by Dick Cavett and Christopher Porterfield, Arbor House, 1983. ISBN 0-87795-463-1

''Talk Show'' by Dick Cavett, Times Books, 2010. ISBN 0-8050-9195-5

References

External links

An interview with Dick Cavett, Feb 2011

Dick Cavett at TVGuide.com

Dick Cavett talks about his love of magic with Dodd Vickers at MagicNewswire.com

"Talk Show: Dick Cavett Speaks Again" New York Times Blog

"Discussion of Dick Cavett's unique talent on MetaFilter"

Category:1936 births Category:American male artistic gymnasts Category:American comedians Category:American game show hosts Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American people of English descent Category:American comedians of Irish descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of German descent Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Entertainers from Nebraska Category:People from Buffalo County, Nebraska Category:People with bipolar disorder Category:Yale School of Drama alumni Category:Writers from Nebraska Category:Writers from New York City

de:Dick Cavett fr:Dick Cavett nl:Dick Cavett

Name	Norman Mailer
Pseudonym	Andreas Wilson
Birth name	Norman Kingsley Mailer
Birth date	January 31, 1923
Birth place	Long Branch, New Jersey
Death date	November 10, 2007
Death place	New York City, New York
Occupation	Novelist, essayist, journalist, columnist, poet, playwright
Nationality	American
Genre	Fiction, non-fiction
Influences	John Dos Passos, George Eliot, Leo Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Mann, William Faulkner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Henry James, Marcel Proust, Henry Miller
Influenced	Don DeLillo, Martin Amis, Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, Lester Bangs, Jim Morrison, Matthew Barney
Portaldisp	yes }}

Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 - November 10, 2007) was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.

Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson, John McPhee, and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, which superimposes the style and devices of literary fiction onto fact-based journalism. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book Award once. In 1955, Mailer, together with John Wilcock, Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf, first published ''The Village Voice'', which began as an arts and politics oriented weekly newspaper distributed in Greenwich Village. In 2005, he received the lifetime Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation.

In 1992, Mailer received the annual Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award presented by the Tulsa Library Trust.

Early life

Norman Kingsley Mailer was born to a well-known Jewish family in Long Branch. His father, Isaac Barnett Mailer, was a South African-born accountant, and his mother, Fanny Schneider, ran a housekeeping and nursing agency. Mailer's sister, Barbara, was born in 1927. His second sister, Norma, was born in 1930. Raised in Brooklyn, New York, he graduated from Boys' High School and entered Harvard University in 1939, where he studied aeronautical engineering. At Harvard, he became interested in writing and published his first story at the age of 18, winning ''Story'' magazine's college contest in 1941. As an undergraduate, he was a member of The Signet Society. After graduating in 1943, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. In World War II, he served in the Philippines with the 112th Cavalry. He was not involved in much combat and completed his service as a cook, but the experience provided enough material for ''The Naked and the Dead''.

Literary career

Novels

In 1948, while continuing his studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, Mailer published ''The Naked and the Dead,'' based on his military service in World War II. A ''New York Times'' best seller for 62 weeks, it was hailed by many as one of the best American wartime novels and named one of the "one hundred best novels in English language" by the Modern Library.

''Barbary Shore'' (1951) was a surreal parable of Cold War left politics set in a Brooklyn rooming-house. His 1955 novel ''The Deer Park'' drew on his experiences working as a screenwriter in Hollywood in 1949–50. It was initially rejected by seven publishers due to its purportedly sexual content before being published by Putnam's.

In the tradition of Dickens and Dostoevsky, Mailer wrote his fourth novel, ''An American Dream'', as a serial in ''Esquire'' magazine over eight months (January to August 1964), publishing the first chapter only two months after he wrote it. In March 1965, Dial Press published a revised version. His editor was E. L. Doctorow. The novel received mixed reviews, but was a best seller. Joan Didion praised it in a review in ''National Review'' (April 20, 1965) and John W. Aldridge did the same in ''Life '' (March 19, 1965), while Elizabeth Hardwick panned it in ''Partisan Review'' (spring 1965). Except for a brief period, the novel has never gone out of print.

In 1980, ''The Executioner's Song''—Mailer's novelization of the life and death of murderer Gary Gilmore—won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Mailer spent a longer time writing ''Ancient Evenings''—his novel of Egypt in the XX dynasty (about 1100 BCE.)—than any of his other books, working on it off and on from 1972 until 1983. It was also a bestseller, although reviews were generally negative.

''Harlot's Ghost'', Mailer's longest novel (1310 pages), appeared in 1991. It is an exploration of the unspoken dramas of the CIA from the end of WWII to 1965. He performed a huge amount of research for the novel, which is still on CIA reading lists. He ended the novel with the words "To be continued," and planned to write a sequel, titled ''Harlot's Grave''. But other projects intervened and he never wrote it. ''Harlot's Ghost'' sold well.

His final novel, ''The Castle in the Forest'', which focused on Hitler's childhood, reached number five on the ''Times'' best-seller list after publication in January 2007, and received stronger reviews than any of his books since ''The Executioner's Song.'' ''Castle'' was intended to be the first volume of a trilogy, but Mailer died several months after it was completed. ''The Castle in the Forest'' was awarded a Bad Sex in Fiction Award by the ''Literary Review'' magazine.

Mailer wrote over 40 books. He published 11 novels over a 59-year span.

The New Journalism

From the mid-1950s, Mailer became known for his counter-cultural essays. In 1955, he co-founded ''The Village Voice'' for which he wrote a column from January to April 1956. Mailer's famous essay "The White Negro" (1957) "analyzes and partly defends the moral radicalism of the outsider and hipster." It is one of the most anthologized, and controversial, essays of the postwar period.

In 1960, Mailer wrote "Superman Comes to the Supermarket" for ''Esquire'' magazine, an account of the emergence of John F. Kennedy during the Democratic party convention. The essay was an important breakthrough for the New Journalism of the nineteen sixties. Mailer's contributions to the New Journalism include major books such as ''The Armies of the Night'' (1968), awarded a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize; ''Miami and the Siege of Chicago'' (1968); ''Of a Fire on the Moon'' (1971); and ''The Prisoner of Sex'' (1971). Hallmarks of these works are a highly subjectivized style and a greater application of techniques from fiction-writing than common in journalism.

Mailer wrote a ''Playboy'' article about Elmo Henderson, a boxer who had defeated Muhammad Ali in 1972. In the 1970s Henderson filed a $1 million libel action against Mailer and ''Playboy''. The magazine and Mailer lost the lawsuit.

Work for film

In addition to his experimental fiction and nonfiction novels, Mailer produced a play version of ''The Deer Park'' (staged at the Theatre De Lys in Greenwich Village in 1967), and in the late 1960s directed a number of improvisational avant-garde films in a Warhol style, including ''Maidstone'' (1970), which includes a spontaneous and brutal brawl between Norman T. Kingsley, played by Mailer, and Kingsley's brother, played by Rip Torn. Mailer received a head injury when Torn struck him with a hammer. In 1987, he adapted and directed a film version of his novel ''Tough Guys Don't Dance'', starring Ryan O'Neal and Isabella Rossellini, which has become a minor camp classic.

Political activism

A number of Mailer's nonfiction works, such as ''The Armies of the Night'' and ''The Presidential Papers'', are political. He covered the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1992, and 1996, although his account of the 1996 Democratic convention has never been published. In the early 1960s he was fixated on the figure of President John F. Kennedy, whom he regarded as an "existential hero." In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s and 1970s his work mingled autobiography, social commentary, history, fiction, and poetry in a formally original way that influenced the development of New Journalism.

In September of 1961 Mailer was one of the original original twenty-nine prominent American sponsors of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee organization that was the same organization that alleged John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald also became a member of in 1963. In December of 1963 Mailer and several of the other sponsors left it. (some of the original twenty-nine sponsors of the group included Truman Capote, Robert Taber, James Baldwin, Robert F. Williams, Waldo Frank, Carleton Beals, Simone de Beauvoir, Robert Colodny, Donald Harrington, and Jean Paul Sartre)

In October 1967, he was arrested for his involvement in an anti-Vietnam War demonstration at the Pentagon. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.

At the December 15, 1971, taping of ''The Dick Cavett Show'', with Janet Flanner and Gore Vidal, Mailer, annoyed with a less-than-stellar review by Vidal of ''Prisoner of Sex'', apparently headbutted Vidal and traded insults with him backstage. As the show began taping, a visibly belligerent Mailer, who admitted he had been drinking, goaded Vidal and Cavett into trading insults with him on air and continually referred to his "greater intellect". He openly taunted and mocked Vidal (who responded in kind), finally earning the ire of Flanner, who announced that the discussion had become "extremely boring", telling Mailer "You act as if you're the only people here." As Cavett made jokes comparing Mailer's intellect to his ego, Mailer stated "Why don't you look at your question sheet and ask your question?", to which Cavett responded "Why don't you fold it 5 ways and shove it where the moon don't shine?"

The headbutting and later on-air altercation was described by Mailer himself in his essay "Of a Small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots." The Wikipedia article about landmark episodes of the show states:

A 1971 interview with Norman Mailer was not going well. Mailer moved his chair away from the other guests (Gore Vidal and Janet Flanner), and Cavett joked that "perhaps you'd like two more chairs to contain your giant intellect?" Mailer replied "I'll take the two chairs if you'll all accept finger-bowls." Mailer later said to Cavett "Why don't you look at your question sheet and ask your question?", to which Cavett replied "Why don't you fold it five ways and put it where the moon don't shine?"

A long laugh ensued, after which Mailer asked Cavett if he had come up with that line and Cavett replied "I have to tell you a quote from Tolstoy?".

In 1980, Mailer spearheaded convicted killer Jack Abbott's successful bid for parole. In 1977, Abbott had read about Mailer's work on ''The Executioner's Song'' and wrote to Mailer, offering to enlighten the author about Abbott's time behind bars and the conditions he was experiencing. Mailer, impressed, helped to publish ''In the Belly of the Beast'', a book on life in the prison system consisting of Abbott's letters to Mailer. Once paroled, Abbott committed a murder in New York City six weeks after his release, stabbing to death 22-year-old Richard Adan. Consequently, Mailer was subject to criticism for his role. In a 1992 interview with the ''Buffalo News'', he conceded that his involvement was "another episode in my life in which I can find nothing to cheer about or nothing to take pride in."

In 1989, Mailer joined with a number of other prominent authors in publicly expressing support for colleague Salman Rushdie in the wake of the ''fatwa'' calling for Rushdie's assassination issued by Iran's Islamic government for his having authored ''The Satanic Verses''.

In 2003, in a speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, just before the invasion of Iraq, Mailer said: "Fascism is more of a natural state than democracy. To assume blithely that we can export democracy into any country we choose can serve paradoxically to encourage more fascism at home and abroad. Democracy is a state of grace that is attained only by those countries who have a host of individuals not only ready to enjoy freedom but to undergo the heavy labor of maintaining it."

From 1980 until his death in 2007, he contributed to Democratic Party candidacies for political office.

Mayoral campaign

In 1969, at the suggestion of Gloria Steinem, his friend the political essayist Noel Parmentel and others, he ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic Party primary for Mayor of New York City, allied with columnist Jimmy Breslin (who ran for City Council President), proposing the creation a 51st state through New York City secession. Although Mailer took stands on a wide range of issues, from opposing "compulsory fluoridation of the water supply" to advocating the release of Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton, decentralization was the overriding issue of the campaign. Mailer "foresaw the city, its independence secured, splintering into townships and neighborhoods, with their own school systems, police departments, housing programs, and governing philosophies." Their slogan was "throw the rascals in". Mailer was endorsed by libertarian economist Murray Rothbard, who "believed that 'smashing the urban government apparatus and fragmenting it into a myriad of constituent fragments' offered the only answer to the ills plaguing American cities," and called Mailer's campaign “the most refreshing libertarian political campaign in decades.” He came in fourth in a field of five. Looking back on the campaign, journalist and historian Theodore White called it "one of the most serious campaigns run in the United States in the last five years. . . . [H]is campaign was considered and thoughtful, the beginning of an attempt to apply ideas to a political situation."

Biographical subjects

His biographical subjects included Pablo Picasso, Muhammad Ali, Gary Gilmore, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe

Mailer's 1973 biography of Monroe (usually designated ''Marilyn: A Biography'') was particularly controversial. The book's final chapter states that Monroe was murdered by agents of the FBI and CIA who resented her supposed affair with Robert F. Kennedy. In his own 1987 autobiography ''Timebends'', the playwright Arthur Miller, a former husband to Monroe, wrote scathingly of Mailer: "[Mailer] was himself in drag, acting out his own Hollywood fantasies of fame and sex unlimited and power."

The book was also enormously successful, selling more copies than any of his works except ''The Naked and the Dead''. It remained in print for decades, but was out of print in the United States .

Two later works co-written by Mailer presented imagined words and thoughts in Monroe's voice: the 1980 book ''Of Women and Their Elegance'' and the 1986 play ''Strawhead'', which was produced off Broadway starring his daughter Kate Mailer.

Personal life

Marriages and children

Norman Mailer was married six times and had nine children. He fathered eight children by his various wives and also raised and informally adopted Norris' son from another marriage, Matthew.

Norman's first marriage was in 1944, to Beatrice Silverman, whom he divorced in 1952. They had one child, Susan.

Mailer married his second wife, Adele Morales, in 1954. They had two daughters, Danielle and Elizabeth. Mailer was violent to his wife. He was at one time involuntarily committed to Bellevue Hospital for 17 days; his wife would not press charges, and he later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of assault, and was given a suspended sentence. While in the short term, Morales made a physical recovery, in 1997 she published a memoir of their marriage entitled ''The Last Party'', which recounted her husband stabbing her at a party and the aftermath. This incident has been a focal point for feminist critics of Mailer, who point to themes of sexual violence in his work.

His third wife, whom he married in 1962, and divorced in 1963, was the British heiress and journalist Lady Jeanne Campbell (1929–2007), the only daughter of Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll and a granddaughter of the press baron Lord Beaverbrook. The couple had a daughter, Kate Mailer, who is an actress.

His fourth marriage, in 1963, was to Beverly Bentley, a former model turned actress. She was the mother of his producer son Michael Mailer and his actor son Stephen Mailer. They divorced in 1980.

His fifth wife was Carol Stevens, a jazz singer whom he married on November 7, 1980, and divorced in Haiti on November 8, 1980, thereby legitimating their daughter Maggie, born in 1971.

His sixth and last wife, whom he married in 1980, was Norris Church Mailer (née Barbara Davis, 1949–2010), an art teacher. They had one son together, John Buffalo Mailer, a writer and actor, and Mailer informally adopted Matthew Norris, her son by her first husband, Larry Norris. Living in Brooklyn, New York and Provincetown, Massachusetts with Mailer, Church worked as a model, wrote and painted.

Works with his children

In 2005, Mailer co-wrote a book with his youngest child, John Buffalo Mailer, entitled ''The Big Empty''.

Mailer appeared in an episode of ''Gilmore Girls'' entitled "Norman Mailer, I'm Pregnant!" with his son Stephen Mailer.

Death and legacy

Mailer died of acute renal failure on November 10, 2007, a month after undergoing lung surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, New York.

The papers of the two-time Pulitzer Prize author may be found at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin.

In 2008, Carole Mallory, a former mistress, sold seven boxes of documents and photographs to Harvard University, Norman Mailer's Alma Mater. They contain extracts of her letters, books and journals.

In 2008, The Norman Mailer Center and The Norman Mailer Writers Colony, a non-profit organization for educational purposes, was established to honor Norman Mailer. Among its programs is the Norman Mailer Prize established in 2009.

Cultural references

In the comedy ''Sleeper'', Woody Allen remarks that Mailer "donated his ego to the Harvard Medical School."

He's referenced in the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Animal Bar" in the lyrics "Ever loving mug of Mr. Norman Mailer".

Singer Lloyd Cole referenced Mailer in the song, "Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken" with the line, "If you really want to get straight, read Norman Mailer, or get a new tailor."

Rapper Talib Kweli, in single Get By, proclaims to "paint a picture with the pen like Norman Mailer".

He is Also referenced in the 1993 PC game Sam and Max Hit the Road in a conversation with the fisherman in the world of Fish (this itself is a Woody Allen parody)

Mentioned in the GWAR song "Vlad the Impaler", the subject of which is someone who "could've been a whaler, could've been a sailor, he turned out to be Norman Mailer."

Selected bibliography

Fiction

Novels

''The Naked and the Dead''. New York: Rinehart, 1948.

''Barbary Shore''. New York: Rinehart, 1951.

''The Deer Park''. New York: Putnam's, 1955.

''An American Dream''. New York: Dial, 1965.

''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' New York: Putnam's, 1967.

''Of Women and Their Elegance''. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1980

''Ancient Evenings''. Boston: Little, Brown, 1983.

''Tough Guys Don't Dance''. New York: Random House, 1984.

''Harlot's Ghost''. New York: Random House, 1991.

''The Gospel According to the Son''. New York: Random House, 1997.

''The Castle in the Forest''. New York: Random House, 2007.

Plays

''The Deer Park: A Play''. New York: Dial, 1967.

Short Stories

''The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer''. New York: Dell, 1967.

Non-fiction

General non-fiction

''The Armies of the Night''. New York: New American Library, 1968.

''Miami and the Siege of Chicago: An Informal History of the Republican and Democratic Conventions of 1968''. New York: New American Library, 1968.

''Of a Fire on the Moon''. Boston: Little, Brown, 1970.

''The Prisoner of Sex''. Boston: Little, Brown, 1971.

''St. George and The Godfather''. New York: Signet Classics, 1972.

''The Faith of Graffiti''. New York: Praeger, 1974.

''The Fight''. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1975.

''The Executioner's Song'' Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1979.

''Of a Small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots''. Northridge, CA: Lord John Press, 1980.

''Why Are We At War?''. New York: Random House, 2003 ISBN 978-0-8129-7111-8

''The Spooky Art: Some Thoughts on Writing''. New York: Random House, 2003.

''The Big Empty: Dialogues on Politics, Sex, God, Boxing, Morality, Myth, Poker and Bad Conscience in America''. New York: Nation Books, 2006

''On God: An Uncommon Conversation''. New York: Random House, 2007 ISBN 978-1-4000-6732-9

Essay collections

''Advertisements for Myself''. New York: Putnam's, 1959.

''The Presidential Papers''.New York: Putnam, 1963.

''Cannibals and Christians''. New York: Dial, 1966.

''Pieces and Pontifications''. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1982.

Biographies ''Marilyn: A Biography''. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1973.

''Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man: An Interpretive Biography''. Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995.

''Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery''. New York: Random House, 1996 ISBN 978-0-679-42535-9

Famous essays and articles

"The White Negro". San Francisco: City Lights, 1957.

Notes

References

Further reading

''Norman Mailer'' by Michael K. Glenday. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995.

''Radical Fictions and the Novels of Norman Mailer'' by Nigel Leigh. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990.

''Norman Mailer: Works and Days'' by J. Michael and Donna P. Lennon. Westport, MA: Sligo Press, 2000. Comprehensive, annotated primary and secondary bibliography with life chronology.

''Norman Mailer: The Man and His Work,'' edited by Robert F. Lucid. Boston: Little, Brown. The first collection of essays on Mailer.

''Norman Mailer'' by Philip Bufithis. New York: Ungar, 1978. Perhaps the most readable and reliable study of Mailer's early work.

''Acts of Regeneration: Allegory and Archetype in the Works of Norman Mailer'' by Robert J. Begiebing. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1980. Fine discussion of Mailer's "heroic consciousness."

''The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer'' by Barry H. Leeds. Bainbridge, WA: Pleasure Boat Studio, 2002.

''Political Fiction and the American Self'' by John Whalen-Bridge. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. Subtle examination of Mailer's dual aptitude of representing and resisting American mythologies.

''Critical Essays on Norman Mailer,'' edited by J.Michael Lennon: Boston, G.K.Hall and Co., 1986.

''Norman Mailer,'' by Richard Poirier. New York: Viking,1972. One of the best studies of Mailer's writing, tracking his career through the early Eighties.

''Norman Mailer'' by Richard Jackson Foster. University of Minnesota Press, 1968. Pamphlet.

''The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer'' by Barry H. Leeds, New York University Press,1969.

''Norman Mailer Revisited'' by Robert Merrill. Twayne, 1992. Contains perhaps the best analysis of ''The Executioner's Song''

''Mailer: His Life and Times,'' edited by Peter Manso. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985. Highly readable, but controversial "oral" biography of Mailer created by cross-cutting interviews with friends, enemies, acquaintances, relatives, wives of Mailer and Mailer himself.

''Conversations with Norman Mailer,'' edited by J. Michael Lennon. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1988.

''Norman Mailer: A Collection of Critical Essays'' edited by Leo Braudy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1972. Contains useful insights on ''Miami and the Siege of Chicago.''

''Existential Battles: The Growth of Norman Mailer'' by Laura Adams. Athens: University of Ohio Press, 1976. Good discussion of early narrators.

''Time to Murder and Create: The Contemporary Novel in Crisis'' by John W. Aldridge. New York: David McKay, 1966. Contains Aldridge's important essay on ''An American Dream.''

''The Portable Beat Reader,'' edited by Ann Charters, Penguin Books. New York. 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3 (hc); ISBN 0-14-015102-8 (pbk). Contains "The White Negro."

''The Norman Mailer Review,'' edited by Phillip Sipiora. New periodical co-sponsored by the University of South Florida and The Norman Mailer Society (www.normanmailersociety.com).

The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture: Francis Irby Gwaltney http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3034

Van A. Tyson http://www.atkinschronicle.com/vantyson.htm

External links

The Norman Mailer Center

The Norman Mailer Society

Transcript of interview with Ramona Koval, Edinburgh International Book Festival, August 2000 broadcast on ''The Book Show'', ABC Radio National, November 12, 2007

"Superman Comes to the Supermarket," article by Norman Mailer on John F. Kennedy, Esquire magazine, November 1960

Sunday New York Times review by Lee Siegel of ''The Castle in the Forest''

Norman Mailer on American Masters (PBS Broadcast)

Norman Mailer: The American (Documentary)

Norman Mailer's writing on The Huffington Post

A conversation with Norman Mailer (Minnesota Public Radio)

Norman Mailer and Günter Grass interviewed by Andrew O'Hagan at The New York Public Library, June 2007

Norman Mailer speech at UC Berkeley Vietnam Teach-In, 1965 (RealAudio) (via UC Berkeley Media Resources Center)

Joyce Carol Oates on Norman Mailer

''Booknotes'' interview with Mailer on ''Oswald's Tale'', June 25, 1995.

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Name	Janis Joplin
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Janis Lyn Joplin
Alias	Pearl
Born	January 19, 1943 Port Arthur, Texas, United States
Death date	October 04, 1970
Death place	Los Angeles, California, United States
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, auto-harp, harmonica, piano, percussion
Genre	Blues rock, soul, psychedelic rock, acid rock, country, folk, hard rock, jazz blues
Occupation	singer
Years active	1962–1970
Label	Columbia
Associated acts	Big Brother and the Holding CompanyKozmic Blues BandFull Tilt Boogie BandGrateful Dead }}

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and songwriter from Port Arthur, Texas. As a youth Joplin was ridiculed by her fellow students due to her unconventional appearance and personal beliefs. She later sang about her experience at school through her song "Ego Rock." Early in her life, Joplin cultivated a rebellious and unconventional lifestyle, becoming a beatnik poet. She began her singing career as a folk and blues singer in San Francisco, playing clubs and bars with her guitar and auto-harp.

Joplin first rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the psychedelic-acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later as a solo artist with her more soulful and bluesy backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band. She was one of the more popular acts at the Monterey Pop Festival and later became one of the major attractions to the Woodstock festival and the Festival Express train tour.

Janis Joplin only charted five singles in her life but her hits and other popular songs from throughout her short four year career include "Down On Me", "Bye, Bye Baby", "Coo Coo", "Summertime", "Piece of My Heart", "Turtle Blues", "Ball 'n' Chain", "Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)", "Maybe", "To Love Somebody", "Kozmic Blues", "Work Me, Lord", "Move Over", "Cry Baby", "A Woman Left Lonely" "Get It While You Can", "My Baby", "Trust Me", "Mercedes Benz", "One Night Stand", "Raise Your Hand" and her only number one hit, "Me and Bobby McGee".

Joplin was well known for her performing abilities and her fans referred to her stage presence as ''electric''. At the height of her career, she was known as "The Queen of Rock and Roll" as well as "The Queen of Psychedelic Soul" and became known as ''Pearl'' amongst her friends. She was also a painter, dancer and music arranger.

''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked Joplin number 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2004, and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Early life: 1943–1961

Janis Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas, on January 19, 1943, to Dorothy (née East) Joplin (1913–1998), a registrar at a business college, and her husband, Seth Joplin (1910–1987), an engineer at Texaco. She had two younger siblings, Michael and Laura. The family attended the Church of Christ. The Joplins felt that Janis always needed more attention than their other children, with her mother stating, "She was unhappy and unsatisfied without [receiving a lot of attention]. The normal rapport wasn't adequate."

As a teenager, she befriended a group of outcasts, one of whom had albums by African-American blues artists Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Lead Belly, whom Joplin later credited with influencing her decision to become a singer. She began singing in the local choir and expanded her listening to blues singers such as Odetta, Billie Holiday and Big Mama Thornton.

Primarily a painter while still in school, she first began singing blues and folk music with friends. While at Thomas Jefferson High School, she stated that she was mostly shunned. Joplin was quoted as saying, "I was a misfit. I read, I painted, I didn't hate niggers." As a teen, she became overweight and her skin broke out so badly she was left with deep scars which required dermabrasion. Other kids at high school would routinely taunt her and call her names like "pig," "freak" or "creep." Among her classmates were G. W. Bailey and Jimmy Johnson.

Joplin graduated from high school in 1960 and attended Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont, Texas, during the summer and later the University of Texas at Austin, though she did not complete her studies. The campus newspaper ''The Daily Texan'' ran a profile of her in the issue dated July 27, 1962, headlined "She Dares To Be Different." The article began, "She goes barefooted when she feels like it, wears Levi's to class because they're more comfortable, and carries her Autoharp with her everywhere she goes so that in case she gets the urge to break into song it will be handy. Her name is Janis Joplin."

Singing career: 1962-1965

Cultivating a rebellious manner, Joplin styled herself in part after her female blues heroines and, in part, after the Beat poets. Her first song recorded on tape, at the home of a fellow student in December 1962, was "What Good Can Drinkin' Do". She left Texas for San Francisco ("just to get away from Texas," she said, "because my head was in a much different place") in January 1963, living in North Beach and later Haight-Ashbury. In 1964, Joplin and future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen recorded a number of blues standards, further accompanied by Margareta Kaukonen on typewriter (as a percussion instrument). This session included seven tracks: "Typewriter Talk", "Trouble In Mind", "Kansas City Blues", "Hesitation Blues", "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out", "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" and "Long Black Train Blues", and was later released as the bootleg album ''The Typewriter Tape''.

Around this time, her drug use increased, and she acquired a reputation as a "speed freak" for her constant speed walking and occasional heroin use. She also used other psychoactive drugs and was a heavy drinker throughout her career; her favorite beverage was Southern Comfort.

In early 1965, Joplin's friends, noticing the physical effects of her amphetamine habit (she was described as "skeletal" and "emaciated"), persuaded her to return to Port Arthur, Texas. In May 1965, Joplin's friends threw her a bus-fare party so she could return home. Back in Port Arthur, she changed her lifestyle. She avoided drugs and alcohol, began wearing relatively modest dresses, adopted a beehive hairdo, and enrolled as a sociology major at Lamar University in nearby Beaumont, Texas. During her year at Lamar University, she commuted to Austin to perform solo, accompanying herself on guitar. One of her performances was reviewed in the ''Austin American-Statesman''. Joplin became engaged to a man who visited her, wearing a blue serge suit, to ask her father for her hand in marriage, but the man terminated plans for the marriage soon afterwards.

Just prior to joining Big Brother and the Holding Company, Joplin recorded seven studio tracks in 1965. Among the songs she recorded was her original composition for her song "Turtle Blues" and an alternate version of "Cod'ine" by Buffy Sainte-Marie. These tracks were later issued as a new album in 1995 titled ''This is Janis Joplin 1965'' by James Gurley.

Big Brother and the Holding Company: 1966–1968

In 1966, Joplin's bluesy vocal style attracted the attention of the psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, a band that had gained some renown among the nascent hippie community in Haight-Ashbury. She was recruited to join the group by Chet Helms, a promoter who had known her in Texas and who at the time was managing Big Brother. Helms brought her back to San Francisco and Joplin joined Big Brother on June 4, 1966. Her first public performance with them was at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. In June, she was photographed at an outdoor concert that celebrated the summer solstice. The image, which was later published in two books by David Dalton, shows her before she relapsed into drugs. Due to persistent persuading by keyboardist and close friend Stephen Ryder, Joplin avoided drug use for several weeks, enjoining bandmate Dave Getz to promise that using needles would not be allowed in their rehearsal space or in her apartment or in the homes of her bandmates whom she visited. When a visitor injected drugs in front of Joplin and Getz, Joplin angrily reminded Getz that he had broken his promise. A San Francisco concert from that summer was recorded and released in the 1984 album ''Cheaper Thrills''. In July, all five bandmates and guitarist James Gurley's wife Nancy moved to a house in Lagunitas, California, where they lived communally. They often partied with the Grateful Dead, who lived less than two miles away.

On August 23, 1966, during a four week engagement in Chicago, the group signed a deal with independent label Mainstream Records. Joplin relapsed into drinking when she and her bandmates (except for Peter Albin) joined some "alcoholic hipsters," as Joplin biographer Ellis Amburn described them, in Chicago. The band recorded tracks in a Chicago recording studio, but the label owner Bob Shad refused to pay their airfare back to San Francisco. Shortly after four of the five musicians drove from Chicago to Northern California with very little money (Albin traveled by plane), they returned to Lagunitas. It was there that Joplin relapsed into intravenous drug use. Three years later, Joplin, by then using a different band, was informed of her friend Nancy Gurley's death from an overdose.

One of Joplin's earliest major performances in 1967 was the Mantra-Rock Dance, a musical event held on January 29 at the Avalon Ballroom by the San Francisco Hare Krishna temple. Janis Joplin and Big Brother performed there along with the Hare Krishna founder Bhaktivedanta Swami, Allen Ginsberg, Moby Grape, and Grateful Dead, donating proceeds to the Krishna temple.

In early 1967, Joplin met Country Joe McDonald of the group Country Joe and the Fish. The pair lived together as a couple for a few months. Joplin and Big Brother began playing clubs in San Francisco, at the Fillmore West, Winterland and the Avalon Ballroom. They also played at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, as well as in Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, the Psychedelic Supermarket in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Golden Bear Club in Huntington Beach, California.

Monterey and breakthrough

The band's debut studio album, ''Big Brother and the Holding Company'', was released by Columbia Records in August 1967, shortly after the group's breakthrough appearance in June at the Monterey Pop Festival. The debut album spawned four minor hits with the singles "Down on Me", a traditional song arranged by Joplin, "Bye Bye Baby", "Call On Me" and "Coo Coo", all of which Joplin sang lead vocals on.

Two songs from the second of Big Brother's two sets at Monterey were filmed. "Combination of the Two" and a version of Big Mama Thornton's "Ball 'n' Chain" appear in the DVD box set of D. A. Pennebaker's documentary ''Monterey Pop'' released by The Criterion Collection. The film captured Cass Elliot, of The Mamas & the Papas, seated in the audience silently mouthing "Wow! That's really heavy!" during Joplin's performance of "Ball and Chain". Only "Ball and Chain" was included in the film that was released to theaters nationwide in 1969 and shown on television in the 1970s. Those who did not attend Monterey Pop saw the band's performance of "Combination of the Two" for the first time in 2002 when The Criterion Collection released the box set.

After switching managers from Chet Helms to Julius Karpen in 1966, the group signed with top artist manager Albert Grossman, whom they met for the first time at Monterey Pop. For the remainder of 1967, Big Brother performed mainly in California. On February 16, 1968, the group began its first East Coast tour in Philadelphia, and the following day gave their first performance in New York City at the Anderson Theater. On April 7, 1968, the last day of their East Coast tour, Joplin and Big Brother performed with Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop at the "Wake for Martin Luther King, Jr." concert in New York.

''Live at Winterland '68'', recorded at the Winterland Ballroom on April 12 and 13, 1968, features Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company at the height of their mutual career working through a selection of tracks from their albums. A recording became available to the public for the first time in 1998 when Sony Music Entertainment released the compact disc.

In early 1968, Joplin and Big Brother made their nationwide television debut on ''The Dick Cavett Show'', an ABC daytime variety show hosted by Dick Cavett. Shortly thereafter, network employees wiped the videotape. Over the next two years, she made three appearances on the primetime Cavett program, and all were preserved. By 1968, the band was being billed as "Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company", and the media coverage given to Joplin generated resentment within the band. The other members of Big Brother thought that Joplin was on a "star trip," while others were telling Joplin that Big Brother was a terrible band and that she ought to dump them.

''Time'' magazine called Joplin "probably the most powerful singer to emerge from the white rock movement," and Richard Goldstein wrote for the May 1968 issue of ''Vogue'' magazine that Joplin was "the most staggering leading woman in rock... she slinks like tar, scowls like war... clutching the knees of a final stanza, begging it not to leave... Janis Joplin can sing the chic off any listener."

''Cheap Thrills''

For her first major studio recording, Janis played a major role in the arrangement and production of the recordings that would become Big Brother and the Holding Company's second album, ''Cheap Thrills''. During the recording, Joplin was said to be the first person to enter the studio and the last person to leave. Footage of Joplin and the band in the studio shows Joplin in great form and taking charge during the recording for "Summertime". The album featured a cover design by counterculture cartoonist Robert Crumb. Although ''Cheap Thrills'' sounded as if it consisted of concert recordings, like on "Combination of the Two" and "I Need a Man to Love", only "Ball and Chain" was actually recorded in front of a paying audience; the rest of the tracks were studio recordings. The album had a raw quality, including the sound of a cocktail glass breaking and the broken shards being swept away during the song "Turtle Blues". ''Cheap Thrills'' produced very popular hits with "Piece of My Heart" and "Summertime". Together with the premiere of the documentary film ''Monterey Pop'' at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on December 26, 1968, the album launched Joplin's successful, albeit short, musical career.

''Cheap Thrills'' reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart eight weeks after its release, remaining for eight (nonconsecutive) weeks. The album was certified gold at release and sold over a million copies in the first month of its release. The lead single from the album, "Piece of My Heart", reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 1968.

The band made another East Coast tour during July–August 1968, performing at the Columbia Records convention in Puerto Rico and the Newport Folk Festival. After returning to San Francisco for two hometown shows at the Palace of Fine Arts Festival on August 31 and September 1, Joplin announced that she would be leaving Big Brother. On September 14, 1968, culminating a three-night final gig together at Fillmore West, fans thronged to honor and exult in the last official night of Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company. The lead-in groups for this night were Chicago (then still called Chicago Transit Authority) and Santana. Janis gave one last performance with Big Brother at a Family Dog benefit on December 1, 1968.

Solo career: 1969–1970

Kozmic Blues Band

After splitting from Big Brother and the Holding Company, Joplin formed a new backup group, the Kozmic Blues Band, composed of session musicians as well as Big Brother and the Holding Company guitarist Sam Andrew and future Full Tilt Boogie Band bassist Brad Campbell. The band was influenced by the Stax-Volt rhythm and blues (R&B;) bands of the 1960s, as exemplified by Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays. The Stax-Volt R&B; sound was typified by the use of horns and had a more bluesy, funky, soul, pop-oriented sound than most of the hard-rock psychedelic bands of the period.

By early 1969, Joplin was allegedly shooting at least $200 worth of heroin per day, although efforts were made to keep her clean during the recording of ''I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!''. Gabriel Mekler, who produced the ''Kozmic Blues'', told publicist-turned-biographer Myra Friedman after Joplin's death that the singer had lived in his house during the June 1969 recording sessions at his insistence so he could keep her away from drugs and her drug-using friends.

Joplin's performance with The Kozmic Blues Band in Frankfurt was released in cinemas around this time. The film shows Joplin arriving in Frankfurt by plane and also includes her interviews from the Royal Albert Hall and on a bus. Most of the performances from this concert were later used in the 1975 film ''Janis: The Way She Was'' and is considered one of her best with the Kozmic Blues Band. No security was used so by the end of the concert the stage was so packed with people the band could not see each other. Another film was released of the band's performance in Stockholm featuring Joplin's interpretation of ''Summertime''.

The Kozmic Blues Band performed on many television shows with Joplin. On the Tom Jones television show, they performed "Little Girl Blue" and "Raise Your Hand", the latter with Jones singing a duet with Joplin. On one episode of ''The Dick Cavett Show'', they performed "Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)" as well as "To Love Somebody". As Cavett interviewed Joplin, she admitted that she had a terrible time touring in Europe, claiming that audiences there are very uptight and don't get down. She also revealed that she was a big fan of the then unknown Tina Turner, saying that she was an incredible singer, dancer and show woman. Joplin and Turner also performed together on at least one occasion at Madison Square Gardens.

''I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!''

The Kozmic Blues album, released in September 1969, was certified gold later that year, but did not match the success of ''Cheap Thrills''. Reviews of the new group were mixed. However, the recording quality and engineering of the record as well as the musicianship were considered superior to her previous releases and some music critics argued that the band was working in a much more constructive way to support Janis' sensational vocal talents. Janis wanted a horn section similar to Chicago Transit Authority (band) and her voice had the dynamic qualities and range to not be overpowered by the brighter horn sound. Some music critics, including Ralph J. Gleason of the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', were negative. Gleason wrote that the new band was a "drag" and that Joplin should "scrap" her new band and "go right back to being a member of Big Brother...(if they'll have her)." Other reviewers, such as reporter Carl Bernstein of the ''Washington Post'' generally ignored the band's flaws and devoted entire articles to celebrating the singer's magic. In general the press concentrated more on her leaving Big Brother rather than the qualities of the new recording.

No single was released from the album itself, but a live rendition of ''Raise Your Hand'' was released and became a top ten hit. Containing other hits like ''Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)'', ''To Love Somebody'' and ''Kozmic Blues'', ''I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!'' reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 weeks after its release.

Woodstock

Joplin and the Kozmic Blues Band toured North America and Europe throughout 1969, appearing at Woodstock in the late hours of Saturday, August 16. She performed until the early morning hours of Sunday, August 17. Her friend Peggy Caserta claimed in a 1973 book that she encouraged Joplin to perform at the festival. Joplin informed her band that they would be performing at the concert as if it were just another gig. When she and the band were flown in by helicopter with Joan Baez from a nearby motel to the festival site and Joplin saw the enormous crowd she instantly became incredibly nervous and giddy. The documentary film of the festival that was released to theaters the following year includes, on the left side of a split screen, 37 seconds of footage of Joplin and Caserta walking toward her dressing room tent. By most accounts, Woodstock was not a happy affair for Joplin.

Faced with a ten hour wait after arriving at the backstage area, she shot heroin with Caserta and was drinking alcohol, so by the time she hit the stage, she was "three sheets to the wind." On stage her voice became slightly hoarse and wheezy and she found it hard to dance. Throughout her performance she frequently spoke to the crowd. She pulled through, however, and the audience was so pleased they cheered her on for an encore, to which she replied and sang ''Ball and Chain''. Her performances of ''Kozmic Blues'' and ''Work Me, Lord'' at Woodstock are notable, though her voice breaks while she sings.

Joplin was ultimately unhappy with her performance and blamed Caserta. Her singing was not included in the documentary film or the soundtrack, ''Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More'', although the 25th anniversary director's cut of ''Woodstock'' includes her performance of "Work Me, Lord". Joplin however remained at Woodstock for the rest of the festival.

In addition to Woodstock, Joplin also had problems four months later at Madison Square Garden where she was joined on stage by special guests Johnny Winter and Paul Butterfield. She told rock journalist David Dalton, the audience watched and listened to "every note [she sang] with 'Is she gonna make it?' in their eyes." In her interview with Dalton she added that she felt most comfortable performing at small, cheap venues in San Francisco that were associated with the counterculture. At the time of this June 1970 interview she already had performed in the Bay Area for what turned out to be the last time.

Sam Andrew, the lead guitarist who had left Big Brother with Joplin in December 1968 to form her back-up band, quit in late summer 1969 and returned to Big Brother without her. At the end of the year, the Kozmic Blues Band broke up. Their final gig with Joplin was at Madison Square Garden in New York City on the night of December 19–20, 1969.

Full Tilt Boogie Band

In February 1970, Joplin traveled to Brazil, where she stopped her drug and alcohol use. She was accompanied on vacation there by her friend Linda Gravenites, who had designed the singer's stage costumes from 1967 to 1969. Joplin was romanced by a fellow American tourist named David (George) Niehaus, who was traveling around the world. A Joplin biography written by her sister Laura said, "David was an upper-middle-class Cincinnati kid who had studied communications at Notre Dame. ... [and] had joined the Peace Corps after college and worked in a small village in Turkey. ... He tried law school, but when he met Janis he was taking time off." Niehaus and Joplin were photographed by the press at Rio Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Gravenites also took color photographs of the two during their Brazilian vacation. According to Joplin biographer Ellis Amburn, in Gravenites' snapshots they "look like a carefree, happy, healthy young couple having a tremendously good time." ''Rolling Stone'' magazine interviewed Joplin during an international phone call, quoting her, "I'm going into the jungle with a big bear of a beatnik named David Niehaus. I finally remembered I don't have to be on stage twelve months a year. I've decided to go and dig some other jungles for a couple of weeks." Amburn added in 1992, "Janis was trying to kick heroin in Brazil, and one of the nicest things about George was that he wasn't into drugs."

Joplin began using heroin again when she returned to the United States. Her relationship with Niehaus soon ended because of his witnessing her shooting drugs at her new home in Larkspur, California, her romantic relationship with Peggy Caserta, who also was an intravenous addict, and her refusal to take some time off work and travel the world with him. Around this time she formed her new band, the Full Tilt Boogie Band. The band was composed mostly of young Canadian musicians and featured an organ, but no horn section. Joplin took a more active role in putting together the Full Tilt Boogie Band than she did with her prior group. She was quoted as saying, "It's ''my'' band. Finally it's ''my'' band!"

The Full Tilt Boogie Band began touring in May 1970. Joplin remained quite happy with her new group, which received mostly positive feedback from both her fans and the critics. Prior to beginning a summer tour with Full Tilt Boogie, she performed in a reunion with Big Brother at the Fillmore West in San Francisco on April 4, 1970. Recordings from this concert were included in an in-concert album released posthumously in 1972. She again appeared with Big Brother on April 12 at Winterland where she and Big Brother were reported to be in excellent form. It was around this time that Joplin began wearing multi-coloured feather boas in her hair. By the time she began touring with Full Tilt Boogie, Joplin told people she was drug-free, but her drinking increased.

Festival Express

From June 28 to July 4, 1970, Joplin and Full Tilt Boogie joined the all-star ''Festival Express'' train tour through Canada, performing alongside Buddy Guy, Rick Danko and The Band, Ten Years After, Grateful Dead, Delaney and Bonnie, Eric Andersen, and Ian & Sylvia. They played concerts in Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary. Janis jammed with the other performers on the train and her performances on this tour are considered to be among her greatest.

Janis convinced The Band, who originally did not want to perform, to come telling them it was going to be a great party.

Janis headlined the festival on all three nights. At the last stop at Toronto, Janis took to the stage with Jerry Garcia while her band was tuning up. She told the audience how great the tour was and presented the organisers with a case of Tequila. She then burst into a two hour set, starting with ''Tell Mama''. Throughout this performance, Janis went into several banters where she spoke about her failed love life. She finished the night with long versions pf ''Get It While You Can'' and ''Ball and Chain''.

Footage of her performance of the song ''Tell Mama'' in Calgary became an MTV video in the early 1980s and was included on the 1982 ''Farewell Song'' album. The audio of other Festival Express performances was included on that 1972 Joplin ''In Concert'' album. Video of the performances was included on the ''Festival Express'' DVD. Her full performances of Festival Express exist and have been released on bootlegs but all footage has yet to be released. In the ''Tell Mama'' video shown on MTV in the 1980s, Joplin wore a psychedelically colored loose-fitting costume and feathers in her hair. This was her standard stage costume in the spring and summer of 1970. She chose the new costumes after her friend and designer, Linda Gravenites (whom Joplin had praised in the May 1968 issue of ''Vogue''), cut ties with Joplin shortly after their return from Brazil, due largely to Joplin's continued use of heroin.

During the ''Festival Express'' tour, Joplin was accompanied by ''Rolling Stone'' writer David Dalton, who later wrote several articles and a book on Joplin. She told Dalton:

''Pearl''

Among her last public appearances were two broadcasts of ''The Dick Cavett Show''. In a June 25, 1970, appearance, she announced that she would attend her ten-year high-school class reunion. When asked if she had been popular in school, she admitted that when in high school, her schoolmates "laughed me out of class, out of town and out of the state." In the August 3, 1970, Cavett broadcast, Joplin referred to her upcoming performance at the Festival for Peace to be held at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York, on August 6, 1970.

Joplin attended the reunion on August 14, accompanied by fellow musician and friend Bob Neuwirth, road manager John Cooke, and her sister Laura, but it reportedly proved to be an unhappy experience for her. Joplin held a press conference in Port Arthur during her reunion visit. Interviewed by ''Rolling Stone'' journalist Chet Flippo, she was reported to wear enough jewelry for a "Babylonian whore." When asked by a reporter during the reunion if Joplin entertained at Thomas Jefferson High School when she was a student there, Joplin replied, "Only when I walked down the aisles." Joplin denigrated Port Arthur and the people who'd humiliated her a decade earlier in high school.

Joplin's last public performance, with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, took place on August 12, 1970, at the Harvard Stadium in Boston, Massachusetts. A positive review appeared on the front page of ''The Harvard Crimson'' newspaper despite the facts that Full Tilt Boogie performed with makeshift sound amplifiers after their regular equipment was stolen in Boston.

During late August, September and early October 1970, Joplin and her band rehearsed and recorded a new album in Los Angeles with producer Paul A. Rothchild, who had produced recordings for The Doors. Although Joplin died before all the tracks were fully completed, there was still enough usable material to compile a long-playing record.

The result of the sessions was the posthumously released ''Pearl'' (1971). It became the biggest selling album of her career and featured her biggest hit single, a cover of Kris Kristofferson's ''Me and Bobby McGee''. Kristofferson had been Joplin's lover in the spring of 1970. The opening track ''Move Over'' was written by Joplin, reflecting the way that she felt men treated women. Also included was the social commentary of the a cappella ''Mercedes Benz'', written by Joplin, Bob Neuwirth and beat poet Michael McClure. The track on the album features the first and only take that Joplin recorded. The track ''Buried Alive In The Blues'', to which Joplin had been scheduled to add her vocals on the day she was found dead, was included as an instrumental. In 2003, ''Pearl'' was ranked No. 122 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Joplin checked into the Landmark Motor Hotel on August 24, 1970, which was located in Hollywood Heights near Sunset Sound Recorders where she began rehearsing and recording her album. During the sessions, Joplin continued a relationship with Seth Morgan, a 21-year-old UC Berkeley student, cocaine dealer and future novelist who had visited her new home in Larkspur, California several times in July and August. She and Morgan became engaged to be married in early September even though he visited Sunset Sound Recorders for just eight of the many sessions when Joplin worked, much to her dismay. Much later Morgan told biographer Myra Friedman that as a non-musician he felt excluded while in the studio. He stayed at Joplin's Larkspur home for days at a time while Joplin stayed alone at the Landmark, although several times she visited Larkspur to be with him and to check the progress of renovations she was having done on the house.

Peggy Caserta claimed in her 1973 book ''Going Down With Janis'' that she and Joplin had decided mutually in April 1970 to stay away from each other to avoid enabling each other's drug use. Caserta, a former Delta Air Lines stewardess and owner of a clothing boutique in the Haight Ashbury, said that by September 1970 she had resorted to smuggling marijuana throughout California and she checked into the Landmark that month because it attracted drug users. Joplin learned of Caserta's presence in Los Angeles and staying at the same hotel from a heroin dealer who made deliveries to the Landmark. Joplin begged Caserta for heroin and within a few days became a regular customer of that heroin dealer.

Joplin's manager Albert Grossman and his assistant Myra Friedman had taken part in an intervention with Joplin the previous winter. While they worked at Grossman's New York office during the Pearl sessions, they knew Joplin was staying at a Los Angeles hotel but did not know it attracted drug users and dealers.

The last recordings Joplin completed were on October 1, 1970 – ''Mercedes Benz'' and a birthday greeting for John Lennon, the Dale Evans ''Happy Trails''. Lennon, whose birthday was October 9, later told Dick Cavett that her taped greeting arrived at his home after her death. On Saturday, October 3, Joplin visited Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles to listen to the instrumental track for Nick Gravenites' song ''Buried Alive in the Blues'' prior to recording the vocal track, scheduled for the next day. At some point on Saturday, she learned by telephone that Seth Morgan was staying at her home and using her pool table with other women he had met that day. In the studio she was heard expressing anger about this and about Morgan having broken a promise to visit her the previous night, although she also expressed joy about the progress of the sessions. She and band member Ken Pearson went from the studio to Barney's Beanery for drinks. After midnight, Joplin drove him and a male fan who tagged along to the Landmark Motor Hotel.

Death

On Sunday October 4, 1970, producer Paul A. Rothchild became concerned when Joplin failed to show up at Sunset Sound Recorders for a recording session. Full Tilt Boogie's road manager, John Cooke, drove to the Landmark Hotel. He saw Joplin's psychedelically painted Porsche 356C Cabriolet in the parking lot. Upon entering her room, he found her dead on the floor beside her bed. The official cause of death was an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol. Cooke believes that Joplin had accidentally been given heroin that was much more potent than normal, as several of her dealer's other customers also overdosed that week. Peggy Caserta and Seth Morgan had both stood Joplin up the Friday immediately prior to her death, October 2, and according to the book ''Going Down With Janis'', Joplin was saddened that neither of her friends visited her at the Landmark Motor Hotel as they had promised to.

Joplin was cremated in the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Mortuary in Los Angeles; her ashes were scattered from a plane into the Pacific Ocean and along Stinson Beach. The only funeral service was a private affair held at Pierce Brothers and attended by Joplin's parents and maternal aunt.

Joplin, along with Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane, opened opportunities into the rock music business for future female singers. Stevie Nicks commented that after seeing Joplin perform, "I knew that a little bit of my destiny had changed. I would search to find that connection that I had seen between Janis and her audience. In a blink of an eye she changed my life."

Joplin's body art, with a wristlet and a small heart on her left breast, by the San Francisco tattoo artist Lyle Tuttle, was an early moment in the popular culture's acceptance of tattoos as art. Another trademark was her flamboyant hair styles, often including colored streaks and accessories such as scarves, beads and feathers. When in New York City, Joplin, often in the company of actor Michael Pollard, frequented Limbo on St. Marks Place. The performer, well known to the store's employees, made a practice of putting aside vintage and other one-of-a-kind garments she favored on stage and off.

Leonard Cohen's 1974 song "Chelsea Hotel #2" is about Joplin. Likewise, lyricist Robert Hunter has commented that Jerry Garcia's "Birdsong" from his first solo album, ''Garcia'', is about Joplin and the end of her suffering through death. Mimi Farina's composition "In the Quiet Morning", most famously covered by Joan Baez on her 1972 ''Come from the Shadows'' album, was a tribute to Joplin. Another notable song sang by Joan Baez, ''Children Of The Eighties'' mentions Joplin.

At the 1976 Montreux Jazz Festival, Nina Simone, who Janis admired greatly, commented on Joplin: Simone also included Joplin in her song ''Stars'' and opened this act with a rendition of ''Little Girl Blue''.

The 1979 film ''The Rose'' was loosely based on Joplin's life. Originally titled ''Pearl'', after Joplin's nickname, and the title of her last album, it was fictionalized after her family declined to allow the producers the rights to her story. Bette Midler earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

In 1988, the Janis Joplin Memorial, with an original bronze, multi-image sculpture of Joplin by Douglas Clark, was dedicated in Port Arthur, Texas.

In 1992, the first major biography of Janis in two decades, ''Love, Janis'', authored by her younger sister, Laura Joplin, was published. In an interview, Laura stated that Janis enjoyed being on the Dick Cavett Show and that Janis while growing up in Texas had difficulties with some people at school, but not the entire school. Laura stated that Janis was really enthusiastic after performing at Woodstock in 1969.

Joplin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, and was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. In November 2009, the Hall of Fame and museum honored her as part of its annual American Music Masters Series. Among the artifacts at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum Exhibition are Joplin's scarf and necklaces, her 1965 Porsche 356 Cabriolet with psychedelically designed painting, and a sheet of LSD blotting paper designed by Robert Crumb, designer of the ''Cheap Thrills'' cover. She was the honoree at the Rock Hall's American Music Master concert and lecture series for 2009.

In the late 1990s, the musical play ''Love, Janis'' was created with input from Janis's younger sister Laura plus Big Brother guitarist Sam Andrew, with an aim to take it to Off Broadway. Opening in the summer of 2001 and scheduled for only a few weeks of performances, the show won acclaim and packed houses and was held over several times, the demanding role of the singing Janis attracting rock vocalists from relative unknowns to pop stars Laura Branigan and Beth Hart. A national tour followed.

There have been many attempts at making a film about Joplin. On June 13, 2010, producer Wyck Godfrey said Amy Adams starred in director Fernando Meirelles' biographical drama, titled ''Janis Joplin: Get It While You Can''. Previous attempts have included ''Piece Of My Heart'', which was to star Renée Zellweger or Brittany Murphy; ''The Gospel According To Janis'', with director Penelope Spheeris and starring either Zooey Deschanel or P!nk; and an untitled film thought to be an adaptation of Laura Joplin's Off-Broadway play about her sister, with the show's star, Laura Theodore, attached.

Influence

Joplin had a profound influence on many singers. Florence Welch of Florence and The Machine spoke of Joplin's impact on her own musical prowess in an interview for ''Why Music Matters'' in a commercial against piracy:

Discography

; Big Brother and the Holding Company

! Title !! Release date !! Label !! Notes
	1967	Mainstream Records
''Big Brother and the Holding Company''	1967?	Columbia	Contains 2 extra single tracks
''Big Brother and the Holding Company''	1967, CD 1999		Contains 2 extra single tracks
	1968
''Cheap Thrills''	1968, CD 1999		Contains 4 extra tracks
''Live at Winterland '68''	1998		ASIN: B000007TSP
''Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968''	2012	Legacy Recordings

; Kozmic Blues Band

! Title !! Release date !! Label !! Notes
''I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!''	1969
''I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!''	1969, CD 1999		Contains 3 extra tracks
''The Woodstock Experience''	2009	Legacy Recordings

; Full Tilt Boogie Band

! Title !! Release date !! Label !! Notes
	1971		posthumous, 4x Multi-Platinum RIAA
''Pearl''	1971, CD unknown date
''Live in Honolulu''	1975
''Wicked Woman (Janis Joplin album)''	1976
''Pearl''	1971, CD 1999		Contains 4 extra tracks
''Pearl''	1971, 2CD 2005		CD1 – 6 other extra tracksCD2 – full selection from The Festival Express Tour, 3 venues
''The Pearl Sessions''	2012	Legacy Recordings

; Big Brother & the Holding Company / Full Tilt Boogie

! Title !! Release date !! Label !! Notes
	1972		ASIN: B0000024Y7

; Later collections

! Title !! Release date !! Label !! Notes
''Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits''	1973		ASIN B00000K2W1, 7x Multi-Platinum RIAA
	1975
''Anthology''	1980		2 discs
''Farewell Song''	1983	Columbia Records	ASIN: B000W44S8E
''Cheaper Thrills''	1984	Fan Club	ASIN: B000LYA9X8
	1993	Columbia Legacy	3 discs – ASIN: B00000286P
18 Essential Songs	1995	Columbia Legacy	ASIN: B000002B1A, Gold RIAA
''The Collection''	1995	3 Discs	ASIN: B000BM6ATW
''Live at Woodstock: August 19, 1969''	1999
''Box of Pearls''	1999		5 Discs – ASIN: B0009YNSK6
''Super Hits''	2000	Sony	ASIN: B00004T1E6
''Love, Janis''	2001	Sony	ASIN: B00005EBIN
''Essential Janis Joplin''	2003	Sony	ASIN: B00007MB6Y
''Very Best of Janis Joplin''	2007	Import	ASIN: B000026A35

Filmography

''Monterey Pop'' (1968)

''Petulia'' (1968)

''Janis Joplin Live in Frankfurt'' (1969)

''Janis: The Way She Was'' (1974)

''Comin’ Home'' (1988)

''Woodstock - The Lost Performances'' (1991)

''Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music (Director’s Cut)'' (1994)

''Festival Express'' (2003)

''Nine Hundred Nights'' (2004)

''The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons'' (2005) Shout

''Rockin' at the Red Dog: The Dawn of Psychedelic Rock'' (2005)

''This is Tom Jones'' (2007) 1969 appearance on TV show

''Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music (Director’s Cut) 40th Anniversary Edition'' (2009)

''Janis Joplin with Big Brother: Ball and Chain'' (DVD) Charly (2009)

References

Further reading

Amburn, Ellis. ''Pearl: The Obsessions and Passions of Janis Joplin: A Biography''. NY: Warner Books, 1992. ISBN 0-446-39506-4.

Caserta, Peggy. ''Going Down with Janis: Janis Joplin's Intimate Story''. Dell: 1974. ASIN: B000NSBNMI.

Dalton, David. ''Piece of my Heart: A Portrait of Janis Joplin''. NY: Da Capo Press, 1991. ISBN 0-306-80446-8.

Echols, Alice. ''Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin''. NY: Henry Holt, 1999. ISBN 0-8050-5394-8.

Friedman, Myra. (1973). ''Buried Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin''. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-00160-2.

ISBN 1-878923-08-0

Joplin, Laura. ''Love, Janis''. NY: Villard Books, 1992. ISBN 1-888358-08-4.

Stieven-Taylor, Alison. ''Rock Chicks''. Sydney: Rockpool Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-921295-06-5.

External links

Biography at The Handbook of Texas Online

JohnGilmore.com: Spotlight on Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin's Kozmic Blues – janisjoplin.net

Re-introducing Janis Joplin – slideshow by ''The New York Times''

Artwork created by Janis Joplin, from her family

Category:1943 births Category:1970 deaths Category:20th-century musicians Category:Alcohol-related deaths in California Category:American blues singers Category:American child singers Category:American female singers Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of Dutch descent Category:American people of German descent Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American rock singers Category:American soul musicians Category:Big Brother and the Holding Company members Category:Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Category:Deaths by heroin overdose in California Category:Drug-related deaths in California Category:Female rock singers Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Lamar University alumni Category:Musicians from Texas Category:People from Beaumont, Texas Category:People from Port Arthur, Texas Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees‎ Category:University of Texas at Austin alumni Category:Women painters

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name	Richard Burton
birth name	Richard Walter Jenkins
birth date	November 10, 1925
birth place	Pontrhydyfen, Wales
death date	August 05, 1984
death place	Céligny, Switzerland
death cause	Cerebral haemorrhage
occupation	Actor
nationality	Welsh
years active	1944–84
spouse	Sybil Williams (1949–63; divorced)Elizabeth Taylor (1964–74, 1975–76; divorced)Suzy Hunt (1976–82; divorced)Sally Hay (1983–84; his death)
Children	Kate BurtonJessica BurtonLiza Todd BurtonMaria Burton
Signature	RichardBurton.jpg ‎ }}

Richard Burton, CBE (10 November 19255 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role (without ever winning), and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. He remains closely associated in the public consciousness with his second wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor; the couple's turbulent relationship was rarely out of the news.

Childhood and education

Richard Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in the village of Pontrhydyfen, Neath Port Talbot, Wales. He grew up in a working class, Welsh-speaking household, the twelfth of thirteen children. His father, Richard Walter Jenkins, was a short, robust coal miner, a "twelve-pints-a-day man" who sometimes went off on drinking and gambling sprees for weeks. Burton later claimed, by family telling, that "He looked very much like me...That is, he was pockmarked, devious, and smiled a great deal when he was in trouble. He was, also, a man of extraordinary eloquence, tremendous passion, great violence."

Burton was less than two years old in 1927 when his mother, Edith Maude (née Thomas), died at the age of 43 after giving birth to her 13th child. His sister Cecilia and her husband Elfed took him into their Presbyterian mining family in nearby Port Talbot (an English-speaking steel town). Burton said later that his sister became "more mother to me than any mother could have ever been... I was immensely proud of her... she felt all tragedies except her own". Burton's father would occasionally visit the homes of his grown daughters but was otherwise absent. Also important in young Burton's life was Ifor (Ivor), the brother 19 years his senior. A miner and rugby player, Ifor "ruled the household with the proverbial firm hand".

Burton showed a talent for English and Welsh literature at grammar school, and demonstrated an excellent memory, though his consuming interest was sports – rugby (in fact famous Welsh centre Bleddyn Williams said in his autobiography that Burton could have gone far as a player), cricket, and table tennis He later said, "I would rather have played for Wales at Cardiff Arms Park than Hamlet at the Old Vic." He earned pocket money by running messages, hauling horse manure, and delivering newspapers. He started to smoke at the age of eight and drink regularly at twelve. Inspired by his schoolmaster, Philip H. Burton, he excelled in school productions, his first being ''The Apple Cart''. Philip could not legally adopt Burton because their age difference was one year short of the minimum twenty years required. Burton early on displayed an excellent speaking and singing voice and won an Eisteddfod prize as a boy soprano.

Burton left school at sixteen for full-time work. He worked for the local wartime Co-operative committee, handing out supplies in exchange for coupons, but then considered other professions for his future, including boxing, religion and singing. When Burton joined the Port Talbot Squadron of the Air Training Corps as a cadet, he re-encountered Philip Burton, his former teacher, who was the commander. Richard also joined a youth drama group led by Leo Lloyd, a steel worker and avid amateur thespian, who taught him the fundamentals of acting.

Philip Burton, recognising Richard's talent, then adopted him as his ward and Richard returned to school, and, being older than most of the boys, he was very attractive to some of the girls. Philip Burton later said, "Richard was my son to all intents and purposes. I was committed to him." Philip Burton tutored his charge intensely in school subjects and also worked at developing the youth's acting voice, including outdoor voice drills which improved his projection.

In 1943, at the age of eighteen, Richard Burton (who had now taken his teacher's surname but would not change it by deed poll for several years), was allowed into Exeter College, Oxford for a special term of six months study, made possible because he was an air force cadet obligated to later military service. He subsequently did serve in the RAF (1944–1947) as a navigator. Burton's eyesight was too poor for him to be considered pilot material.

Early acting career

In the 1940s and early 1950s Burton worked on stage and in cinema in the United Kingdom. Before his war service with the Royal Air Force, he starred as Professor Higgins in a YMCA production of ''Pygmalion''. He earned his first professional acting fees doing radio parts for the BBC. He had made his professional acting debut in Liverpool and London, appearing in ''Druid's Rest'', a play by Emlyn Williams (who also became a guru), but his career was interrupted by conscription in 1944. Early on as an actor, he developed the habit of toting around a book-bag filled with novels, dictionaries, a complete Shakespeare, and books of quotations, history, and biography, and enjoyed solving crossword puzzles. Burton could, given any line from Shakespeare's works, recite from memory the next several minutes of lines. His Welsh love of language was paramount, as he famously stated years later, with a tearful Elizabeth Taylor at his side, "The only thing in life is language. Not love. Not anything else."

In 1947, after his discharge from the RAF, Burton went to London to seek his fortune. He immediately signed up with a theatrical agency to make himself available for casting calls. His first film was ''The Last Days of Dolwyn'', set in a Welsh village about to be drowned to provide a reservoir. His reviews praised him for his "acting fire, manly bearing, and good looks."

Burton met his future wife, the young actress Sybil Williams, on the set, and they married in February 1949. They had two daughters, and divorced in 1963 after Burton's widely reported affair with Elizabeth Taylor. In the years of his marriage to Sybil, Burton appeared in the West End in a highly successful production of ''The Lady's Not for Burning'', alongside Sir John Gielgud and Claire Bloom, in both the London and NewYork productions. He had small parts in various British films: ''Now Barabbas Was A Robber''; ''Waterfront'' (1950) with Robert Newton; ''The Woman with No Name'' (1951); and a bigger part as a smuggler in ''Green Grow the Rushes'', a B-movie.

Reviewers took notice of Burton: "He has all the qualifications of a leading man that the British film industry so badly needs at this juncture: youth, good looks, a photogenic face, obviously alert intelligence, and a trick of getting the maximum of attention with a minimum of fuss." In the 1951 season at Stratford, he gave a critically acclaimed performance and achieved stardom as Prince Hal in Shakespeare's ''Henry IV, Part 1'' opposite Anthony Quayle's Falstaff. Philip Burton arrived at Stratford to help coach his former charge, and he noted in his memoir that Quayle and Richard Burton had their differences about the interpretation of the Prince Hal role. Richard Burton was already demonstrating the same independence and competitiveness as an actor that he displayed off-stage in drinking, sport, or story-telling.

Kenneth Tynan said of Burton's performance, "His playing of Prince Hal turned interested speculation to awe almost as soon as he started to speak; in the first intermission local critics stood agape in the lobbies." Suddenly, Richard Burton had fulfilled his guardian's wildest hopes and was admitted to the post-War British acting circle which included Anthony Quayle, John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave, Hugh Griffith and Paul Scofield. He even met Humphrey Bogart, a fellow hard drinker, who sang his praises back in Hollywood. Lauren Bacall recalled, "Bogie loved him. We all did. You had no alternative." Burton bought the first of many cars and celebrated by increasing his drinking. The following year, Burton signed a five-year contract with Alexander Korda at £100 a week, launching his Hollywood career.

Hollywood and later career

In 1952, Burton successfully made the transition to a Hollywood star; on the recommendation of Daphne du Maurier, he was given the leading role in ''My Cousin Rachel'' opposite Olivia de Havilland. Burton arrived on the Hollywood scene at a time when the studios were struggling. Television's rise was drawing away viewers and the studios looked to new stars and new film technology to staunch the bleeding. 20th Century Fox negotiated with Korda to borrow him for this film and a further two at $50,000 a film. The film was a critical success. It established Burton as a Hollywood leading man and earned him his first Academy Award nomination and the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor. In ''Desert Rats'' (1953), Burton plays a young English captain in the North African campaign during World War II who takes charge of a hopelessly out-numbered Australian unit against the indomitable Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (James Mason). Mason, another actor known for his distinctive voice and excellent elocution, became a friend of Burton's and introduced the new actor to the Hollywood crowd. In short order, he met Judy Garland, Greta Garbo, Stewart Granger, Jean Simmons, Deborah Kerr, and Cole Porter, and Burton met up again with Humphrey Bogart. At a party, he met a pregnant Elizabeth Taylor (then married to Michael Wilding) whose first impression of Burton was that "he was rather full of himself. I seem to remember that he never stopped talking, and I had given him the cold fish eye."

The following year he created a sensation by starring in ''The Robe,'' the first film to premiere in the wide-screen process CinemaScope, winning another Oscar nomination. He replaced Tyrone Power, who was originally cast in the role of Marcellus, a noble but decadent Roman in command of the detachment of Roman soldiers that crucified Jesus Christ, who, haunted by his guilt from this act, is eventually led to his own conversion. Marcellus' Greek slave (played by Victor Mature) guides him as a spiritual teacher, and his wife (played by Jean Simmons) follows his lead, although it will mean both their deaths. The film marked a resurgence in Biblical blockbusters. Burton was offered a seven-year, $1 million contract by Darryl F. Zanuck at Fox, but he turned it down, though later the contract was revived and he agreed to it. It has been suggested that remarks Burton made about blacklisting Hollywood while filming ''The Robe'' may have explained his failure to ever win an Oscar, despite receiving seven nominations.

In 1954, Burton took his most famous radio role, as the narrator in the original production of Dylan Thomas's ''Under Milk Wood'', a role he would reprise in the film version twenty years later. He was also the narrator, as Winston Churchill, in the highly successful 1960 television documentary series ''The Valiant Years.''

Stage career

Burton was still juggling theatre with film, playing Hamlet and Coriolanus at the Old Vic theatre in 1953 and alternating the roles of Iago and Othello with the Old Vic's other rising matinee idol John Neville. Hamlet was a challenge that both terrified and attracted him, as it was a role many of his peers in the British theatre had undertaken, including John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier. Bogart, on the other hand, warned him as Burton left Hollywood, "I never knew a man who played Hamlet who didn't die broke." Once again, Philip Burton provided expert coaching. Claire Bloom played Ophelia, and their work together led to a turbulent affair. His reviews in ''Hamlet'' were good but he received stronger praise for Coriolanus. His fellow actor Robert Hardy said, "His Coriolanus is quite easily the best I've ever seen" but Hamlet was "too strong".

Burton appeared on Broadway, receiving a Tony Award nomination for ''Time Remembered'' (1958) and winning the award for playing King Arthur in the musical ''Camelot'' (1960), directed by Moss Hart and written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Julie Andrews, fresh from her triumph in ''My Fair Lady,'' played Guenevere to Burton's King Arthur, with Robert Goulet as Lancelot completing the love triangle. The production was troubled, with both Loewe and Hart falling ill, numerous revisions upsetting the schedule and the actors, and the pressure building due to great expectations and huge advance sales. The show's running time was nearly five hours. Burton took it all in his stride and calmed people down with statements like "Don't worry, love." Burton's intense preparation and competitive desire served him well. He was generous and supportive to others who were suffering in the maelstrom. According to Lerner, "he kept the boat from rocking, and ''Camelot'' might never have reached New York if it hadn't been for him." As in the play, both male stars were enamoured of their leading lady, newly married Andrews. When Goulet turned to Burton for advice, Burton had none to offer, but later he admitted, "I tried everything on her myself. I couldn't get anywhere either." Burton's reviews were excellent, ''Time'' magazine stated that Burton "gives Arthur the skilful and vastly appealing performance that might be expected from one of England's finest young actors." The show's album was a major seller. The Kennedys, newly in the White House, also enjoyed the play and invited Burton for a visit, establishing the link of the idealistic young Kennedy administration with Camelot.

He then put his stage career on the back burner to concentrate on film, although he received a third Tony Award nomination when he reprised his Hamlet under John Gielgud's direction in 1964 in a production that holds the record for the longest run of the play in Broadway history (136 performances). The performance was immortalised both on record and on a film that played in US theatres for a week in 1964 as well as being the subject of books written by cast members William Redfield and Richard L. Sterne. Burton took the role on just after his marriage to Taylor. Since Burton disliked wearing period clothing, Gielgud conceived a production in a "rehearsal" setting with a half-finished set and actors wearing their street clothes (carefully selected while the production really was in rehearsal). Burton's basic reading of Hamlet, which displeased some theatre-goers, was of a complex manic-depressive personality, but during the long run he varied his performance considerably as a self-challenge and to keep his acting fresh. On the whole, Burton had good reviews. ''Time'' said that Burton "put his passion into Hamlet's language rather than the character. His acting is a technician's marvel. His voice has gem-cutting precision." The opening night party was a lavish affair, attended by six hundred celebrities who paid homage to the couple. The most successful aspect of the production was generally considered to be Hume Cronyn's performance as Polonius, winning Cronyn the only Tony Award that he would ever receive in a competitive category.

After his Hamlet, Burton did not return to the stage for twelve years until 1976 in ''Equus''. (He did accept the role of Humbert Humbert in Alan Jay Lerner's musical adaptation of ''Lolita'' entitled ''Lolita, My Love''. However he withdrew and was replaced by friend and fellow Welshman John Neville.) His performance as psychiatrist Martin Dysart won him both a special Tony Award for his appearance, but he had to make ''Exorcist II: The Heretic'' – a film he hated – before Hollywood producers would allow him to repeat his role in the 1977 film version. The final stage performance in which he starred was a critically reviled production of Noël Coward's ''Private Lives,'' opposite his ex-wife Elizabeth Taylor, in 1983. Most reviewers dismissed the production as a transparent attempt to capitalise on the couple's celebrity, although they grudgingly praised Burton as having the closest connection to Coward's play of anyone in the cast.

Hollywood career in the 1950s and 1960s

In terms of critical success, Burton's Hollywood roles throughout the 1950s did not live up to the early promise of his debut. Burton returned to Hollywood to star in ''Prince of Players'', another historical Cinemascope film, this time concerning Edwin Booth, famous American actor and brother of Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth. A weak script undermined a valiant effort by Burton, although the view of director Philip Dunne was that "The fire and intensity were there, but that was all. He hadn't yet mastered the tricks of the great movie stars, such as Gary Cooper." Next came ''Alexander the Great'' (1956), written, directed, and produced by Robert Rossen, with Burton in the title role, on a loan out to United Artists, and again with Claire Bloom co-starring. Contrary to Burton's expectations, the "intelligent epic" was a wooden, slow-paced flop.

In ''The Rains of Ranchipur'', Burton plays a noble Hindu doctor who attempts the spiritual recovery of an adulteress (Lana Turner). Critics felt that the film lacked star chemistry, with Burton having difficulty with the accent, and relied too heavily on Cinemascope special effects including an earthquake and a collapsing dam. Burton returned to the theatre in ''Henry V'' and ''Othello'', alternating the roles of Iago and Othello. He and Sybil then moved to Switzerland to avoid high British taxes and to try to build a nest egg, for themselves and for Burton's family. He returned to film again in ''Sea Wife'', shot in Jamaica and directed by Roberto Rossellini. A young Joan Collins (then called by the tabloids "Britain's bad girl") plays a nun shipwrecked on an island with three men. But Rossellini was let go after disagreements with Zanuck. According to Collins, Burton had a "take-the-money-and-run attitude" toward the film. Burton turned down the lead for ''Lawrence of Arabia'', also turned down by Marlon Brando, which went to newcomer Peter O'Toole.

Then in 1958, he was offered the part of Jimmy Porter, "an angry young man" role, in the film version of John Osborne's play ''Look Back in Anger'', a gritty drama about middle-class life in the British Midlands, directed by Tony Richardson, and again with Claire Bloom as co-star. Though it didn't do well commercially (many critics felt Burton, at 33, looked too old for the part) and Burton's Hollywood box office aura seemed to be diminishing, Burton was proud of the effort and wrote to his mentor Philip Burton, "I promise you that there isn't a shred of self-pity in my performance. I am for the first time ever looking forward to seeing a film in which I play". Next came ''The Bramble Bush'' and ''Ice Palace'' in 1960, neither important to Burton's career.

After playing King Arthur in ''Camelot'' on Broadway for six months, Burton replaced Stephen Boyd as Mark Antony in the troubled production ''Cleopatra'' (1963). Twentieth Century-Fox's future appeared to hinge on what became the most expensive movie ever made up until then, reaching almost $40 million. The film proved to be the start of Burton's most successful period in Hollywood; he would remain among the top 10 box-office earners for the next four years. During the filming, Burton met and fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor, who was married to Eddie Fisher. The two would not be free to marry until 1964 when their respective divorces were complete. On their first meeting on the set, Burton said "Has anyone ever told you that you're a very pretty girl?" Taylor later recalled, "I said to myself, ''Oy gevalt'', here's the great lover, the great wit, the great intellectual of Wales, and he comes out with a line like that." In their first scenes together, he was shaky and missing his lines, and she soothed and coached him. Soon the affair began in earnest and Sybil, seeing this as more than a passing fling with a leading lady, was unable to bear it. She fled the set, first for Switzerland, then for London.

The gigantic scale of the troubled production, Taylor's bouts of illness and fluctuating weight, the off-screen turbulence—all generated enormous publicity, which by-and-large the studio embraced. Zanuck stated, "I think the Taylor-Burton association is quite constructive for our organization." The six-hour film was cut to under four, eliminating many of Burton's scenes, but the result was viewed the same—a film long on spectacle dominated by the two hottest stars in Hollywood. Their private lives turned out to be an endless source of curiosity for the media, and their marriage was also the start of a series of on-screen collaborations. In the end, the film did well enough to recoup its great cost.

Burton played Taylor's tycoon husband in ''The V.I.P.s'', an all-star film set in the VIP lounge of London Airport which proved to be a box-office hit. Then Burton portrayed the archbishop martyred by Henry II in the title role of ''Becket'', turning in an effective, restrained performance, contrasting with Peter O'Toole's manic portrayal of Henry.

In 1964, Burton triumphed as defrocked Episcopal priest Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon in Tennessee Williams' ''The Night of the Iguana'' directed by John Huston, a film which became another critical and box office success. Richard Burton's performance in ''The Night of the Iguana'' may be his finest hour on the screen, and in the process helped put the town of Puerto Vallarta on the map (the Burtons later bought a house there). Part of Burton's success was due to how well he varied his acting with the three female characters, each of whom he tries to seduce differently: Ava Gardner (the randy hotel owner), Sue Lyon (the nubile American tourist), and Deborah Kerr (the poor, repressed artist).

Against his family's advice, Burton married Taylor on Sunday 15 March 1964, in Montreal. Ever optimistic, Taylor proclaimed, "I'm so happy you can't believe it. This marriage will last forever". At the hotel in Boston, the rabid crowd clawed at the newlyweds, Burton's coat was ripped and Taylor's ear was bloodied when someone tried to steal one of her earrings.

After an interruption playing ''Hamlet'' on Broadway, Burton returned to film as British spy Alec Leamas in ''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold''. Burton and Taylor continued making films together though the next one ''The Sandpiper'' (1965) was poorly received. Following that, he and Taylor had a great success in Mike Nichols's film (1966) of the Edward Albee play ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'', in which a bitter erudite couple spend the evening trading vicious barbs in front of their horrified and fascinated guests, played by George Segal and Sandy Dennis. Burton was not the first choice for the role of Taylor's husband. Jack Lemmon was offered the role first, but when he backed off, Jack Warner, with Taylor's insistence, agreed on Burton and paid him his price. Albee preferred Bette Davis and James Mason, fearing that the Burtons' strong screen presence would dominate the film. Nichols, in his directorial debut, managed the Burtons brilliantly. The script, adapted from Albee's play by Hollywood veteran Ernest Lehman, broke new ground for its raw language and harsh depiction of marriage. Although all four actors received Oscar nominations for their roles in the film (the film received a total of thirteen), only Taylor and Dennis went on to win. So immersed had the Burtons become in the roles of George and Martha over the months of shooting, after the wrap Richard Burton said, "I feel rather lost." Later the couple would state that the film took its toll on their relationship, and that Taylor was "tired of playing Martha" in real life.

Their lively version of Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' (1967), directed by Franco Zeffirelli, was a notable success. Later collaborations, however, ''The Comedians'' (1967), ''Boom!'' (1968), and the Burton-directed ''Doctor Faustus'' (1967) (which had its genesis from a theatre production he staged and starred in at the Oxford University Dramatic Society) were critical and commercial failures. He did enjoy a final commercial blockbuster with Clint Eastwood in ''Where Eagles Dare'' in 1968 but his last film of the decade, ''Anne of the Thousand Days'' (1969), was a commercial and critical disappointment. In spite of those failures, it performed remarkably well at that year's Academy awards (receiving ten nominations, including one for Burton's performance as Henry VIII), which many thought to be largely the result of an expensive advertising campaign by Universal Studios.

Later career

Because of Burton and Taylor's extravagant spending and his support of his family and others (42 people at one point), Burton agreed to work in mediocre films that hurt his career. He recognised his financial need to do so, and that in the New Hollywood era of cinema he or Taylor would not soon again be paid as well as at the height of their stardom. Films he made during this period included ''Bluebeard'' (1972), ''Hammersmith Is Out'' (1972), ''The Klansman'' (1974), and ''Exorcist II: The Heretic'' (1977). He did enjoy one major critical success in the 1970s in the film version of his stage hit ''Equus'', winning the Golden Globe Award as well as an Academy Award nomination. Public sentiment towards his perennial frustration at not winning an Oscar made many pundits consider him the favourite to finally win the award, but on Oscar Night he lost to Richard Dreyfuss in ''The Goodbye Girl''.

In 1976 Burton received a Grammy in the category of Best Recording for Children for his narration of ''The Little Prince'' by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. He also found success in 1978, when he narrated ''Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds''. His distinctive performance became a necessary part of the concept album – so much so that a hologram of Burton is used to narrate the live stage show (touring in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010) of the musical.

Burton had an international box office hit with ''The Wild Geese'' (1978), an adventure tale about mercenaries in Africa. The film was a success in the UK and Europe but had only limited distribution in the U.S. owing to the collapse of the studio that funded it and the lack of an American star in the movie. He returned to appearing in critically reviled films like ''The Medusa Touch'' (1978), ''Circle of Two'' (1980), and the title role in ''Wagner'' (1983), a role he said he was born to play, after his success in ''Equus''. His last film performance, as O'Brien in ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', was critically acclaimed.

At the time of his death, Burton was preparing to film ''Wild Geese II'', the sequel to ''The Wild Geese'', which was eventually released in 1985. Burton was to reprise the role of Colonel Faulkner, while his friend Sir Laurence Olivier was cast as Rudolf Hess. After his death, Burton was replaced by Edward Fox, and the character changed to Faulkner's younger brother.

Oscars

He was nominated six times for an Academy Award for Best Actor and once for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor – but he never won. From 1982, he and ''Becket'' co-star Peter O'Toole shared the record for the male actor with the most nominations (7) for a competitive acting Oscar without ever winning. In 2007, O'Toole was nominated for an eighth time (and subsequently lost), for ''Venus'' (however, O'Toole received an Academy Honorary Award in 2003).

Television

Burton rarely appeared on television, although he gave a memorable performance as Caliban in a televised production of ''The Tempest'' for The Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1960. Later appearances included the television film ''Divorce His – Divorce Hers'' (1973) opposite then-wife Elizabeth Taylor (a prophetic title, since their first marriage would be dissolved less than a year later), a remake of the classic film ''Brief Encounter'' (1974) that was considered vastly inferior to the 1945 original, and a critically applauded performance as Winston Churchill in ''The Gathering Storm'' (1974). A critically panned film he made about the life of Richard Wagner (noted for having the only onscreen teaming of Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson in the same scenes) was shown as a television miniseries in 1983 after failing to achieve a theatrical release in most countries, but Burton enjoyed a personal triumph in the American television miniseries ''Ellis Island'' in 1984, receiving a posthumous Emmy Award nomination for his final television performance.

Television played an important part in the fate of his Broadway appearance in ''Camelot.'' When the show's run was threatened by disappointing reviews, Burton and co-star Julie Andrews appeared on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' to perform the number ''What Do The Simple Folk Do?''. The television appearance renewed public interest in the production and extended its Broadway run.

Burton showed a subtle flair for comedy in a 1970 guest appearance with Elizabeth Taylor on the sitcom ''Here's Lucy'', where he recited, in a plumber's uniform, a haunting excerpt of a speech from Shakespeare's ''Richard II''. He later parodied this role in an episode of Television Show ''The Fall Guy''.

In 1997, archive footage of Burton was used in the first episode of the television series ''Conan.''

Book

In 1964, Burton wrote a semi-autobiographical book ''A Christmas Story'', which is an endearing tale of a Christmas Eve in a Welsh mining village, during the Depression.

Personal life

Burton was married five times and he had four children. From 1949 until their divorce in 1963, he was married to producer Sybil Williams, by whom he had two daughters, Katherine "Kate" Burton (born 10 September 1957) and Jessica Burton (born 1961). He was married twice, consecutively, to actress Elizabeth Taylor, from 15 March 1964 to 26 June 1974 and from 10 October 1975 to 29 July 1976. Their first wedding took place in Montreal, and their second wedding occurred, 16 months after their divorce, in the Chobe National Park in Botswana. In 1964, the couple adopted a daughter from Germany, Maria Burton (born 1 August 1961). Burton also adopted Taylor's daughter by the late producer Mike Todd, Elizabeth Frances "Liza" Todd Burton (born 6 August 1957). Their relationship as portrayed in ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' was popularly likened to Burton and Taylor's real-life marriage. Burton disagreed with others about Taylor's famed beauty, saying that calling her "the most beautiful woman in the world is absolute nonsense. She has wonderful eyes, but she has a double chin and an overdeveloped chest, and she’s rather short in the leg." In August 1976, a month after his second divorce from Taylor, Burton married model Susan Hunt, the former wife of Formula 1 Champion James Hunt; the marriage ended in divorce in 1982. From 1983 until his death in 1984, Burton was married to make-up artist Sally Hay.

In 1957 Burton became a tax exile by moving to Switzerland, where he lived until his death. It is widely believed he was never offered a knighthood due to his tax exile status, together with his attacks on Churchill and other controversial public opinions.

In 1968 Burton's elder brother, Ifor, slipped and fell, breaking his neck, after a lengthy drinking session with Burton at the actor's second home in Céligny, Switzerland. The injury left him paralysed from the neck down. His younger brother Graham Jenkins opined it may have been guilt over this that caused Burton to start drinking very heavily, particularly after Ifor died in 1973.

In a February 1975 interview with his friend David Lewin he said he "tried" homosexuality. He also suggested that perhaps all actors were latent homosexuals, and "we cover it up with drink". In 2000, Ellis Amburn's biography of Elizabeth Taylor suggested that Burton had an affair with Laurence Olivier and tried to seduce Eddie Fisher, although this was strongly denied by Burton's younger brother Graham Jenkins.

Burton was notorious for his unrestrained pursuit of women while filming. Joan Collins wrote that when she rejected his on-set advances, he embarked on a series of liaisons with other women including an elderly black maid who, according to Collins, was "almost toothless". Collins playfully told Burton that she believed he would sleep with a snake if he had the chance, to which Burton is alleged to have replied "only if it was wearing a skirt, darling".

He was an insomniac and a notoriously heavy drinker. However, ongoing back pain and a dependence upon pain medications have been suggested as the true cause of his misery. He was also a heavy smoker from the time he was just eight years old; and by his own admission in a December 1977 interview with Sir Ludovic Kennedy, Burton was smoking 60–100 cigarettes per day. According to his younger brother Graham Jenkins's 1988 book ''Richard Burton: My Brother'', he smoked at least a hundred cigarettes a day.

His father, also a heavy drinker, refused to acknowledge his son's talents, achievements and acclaim. In turn, Burton declined to attend his funeral, in 1957. Like Burton, his father died from a cerebral haemorrhage, in January 1957, at the age of 81.

Burton admired and was inspired by the actor and dramatist Emlyn Williams. He employed his son Brook Williams as his personal assistant and adviser and he was given small roles in some of the films in which Burton starred.

Burton was banned permanently from BBC productions in November 1974 for writing two newspaper articles questioning the sanity of Winston Churchill and others in power during World War II – Burton reported hating them "virulently" for the alleged promise to wipe out all Japanese people on the planet. The publication of these articles coincided with what would have been Churchill's centenary, and came after Burton had played him in a favourable light in ''A Walk with Destiny'', with considerable help from the Churchill family. In one article he accused Churchill of having Welsh miners shot during strikes in the 1920s. Ironically, Burton got along well with Churchill when he met him at a play in London, and kept a bust of him on his mantelpiece. On the Parkinson show in November 1974 Burton told a funny story about meeting Churchill; however, according to Robert Hardy, it was not true. Politically Burton was a lifelong socialist, although he was never as heavily involved in politics as his close friend Stanley Baker. He greatly admired Democratic Senator Robert F. Kennedy and once got into a sonnet-quoting contest with him. In 1973 Burton agreed to play Josef Broz Tito in a biopic, since he greatly admired the Yugoslav leader. While filming in Yugoslavia he publicly proclaimed that he was a communist, saying he felt no contradiction between earning vast sums of money for films and holding very left-wing views since "unlike capitalists, I don't exploit other people." Burton courted further controversy in 1976 when he wrote a controversial article about his friend and fellow Welsh thespian Stanley Baker, who had recently died from pneumonia at the age of 48.

Health issues

The 1988 biography of Burton by Melvyn Bragg provides a detailed description of the many health issues that plagued Burton throughout his life. In his youth, Burton was a star athlete and well known for his athletic abilities and strength. By the age of 41 he had declined so far in health that his arms were by his own admission thin and weak. He suffered from bursitis, possibly aggravated by faulty treatment, arthritis, dermatitis, cirrhosis of the liver and kidneys, as well as developing, by his mid-forties, a pronounced limp. How much of this was due to his intake of alcohol is impossible to ascertain, according to Bragg, because of Burton's reluctance to be treated for alcohol addiction; however, in 1974, Burton spent six weeks in a clinic to recuperate from a period during which he had been drinking three bottles of vodka a day. He was also a regular smoker, with an intake of between three and five packs a day for most of his adult life. Health issues continued to plague him until his death of a stroke at the age of 58.

Death

Burton died at age 58 from a brain haemorrhage on 5 August 1984 at his home in Céligny, Switzerland, and is buried there. Although his death was sudden, his health had been declining for several years, and he suffered from a constant and severe pain in the neck. He had been warned that his liver was enlarged as early as March 1970, and had been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and kidneys in April 1981. Burton was buried in a red suit, a tribute to his Welsh roots, and with a copy of Dylan Thomas' poems. He and Taylor had discussed being buried together; his widow Sally purchased the plot next to Burton's and erected a large headstone across both, likely to prevent Taylor from being buried there.

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

;Nominations

1952 Best Supporting Actor, ''My Cousin Rachel''

1953 Best Actor, ''The Robe''

1964 Best Actor, ''Becket''

1965 Best Actor, ''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold''

1966 Best Actor, ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?''

1969 Best Actor, ''Anne of the Thousand Days''

1977 Best Actor, ''Equus''

BAFTA Awards

1966 Best Actor, ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? / The Spy Who Came in from the Cold''

;Nominations

1959 Best Actor, ''Look Back in Anger''

1967 Best Actor, ''The Taming of the Shrew''

Emmy Awards

;Nominations

1985 Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special, ''Ellis Island''

Golden Globe Awards

1953 Most Promising Newcomer – Male, ''My Cousin Rachel''

1978 Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, ''Equus''

;Nominations

1960 Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, ''Look Back in Anger''

1965 Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, ''Becket''

1967 Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?''

1968 Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical/Comedy, ''The Taming of the Shrew''

1970 Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, ''Anne of the Thousand Days''

Grammy Award Winner

1975 Best Children's Recording, The Little Prince

Tony Awards

1961 Best Actor – Musical, ''Camelot''

1976 Special Award

;Nominations

1959 Best Actor – Play, ''Time Remembered''

1964 Best Actor – Play, ''Hamlet''

Filmography

Stage productions

''Measure for Measure'' (1944)

''Druid's Rest'' (1944)

''Castle Anna'' (1948)

''The Lady's Not for Burning'' (1949)

''The Lady's Not for Burning'' (1950)

''A Phoenix Too Frequent'' (1950)

''The Boy With A Cart'' (1950)

''Legend of Lovers'' (1951)

''The Tempest'' (1951)

''Henry V'' (1951)

''Henry IV'' (1951)

''Montserrat'' (1952)

''The Tempest'' (1953)

''King John'' (1953)

''Hamlet'' (1953)

''Coriolanus'' (1953)

''Hamlet'' (1953)

''Twelfth Night'' (1953)

''Henry V'' (1955)

''Othello'' (1956)

''Sea Wife'' (1957)

''Time Remembered'' (1957)

''Camelot'' (1960)

''Hamlet'' (1964)

''A Poetry Reading'' (1964)

''Doctor Faustus'' (1966)

''Equus'' (1970)

''Camelot'' (1980)

''Private Lives'' (1983)

''War of the Worlds'' (1978)

Further reading

Shipman, D. ''The Great Movie Stars: The International Years'', Angus & Robertson 1982. ISBN 0-207-14803-1

References

External links

Official website of Richard Burton

Richard Burton's yacht Kalizma

Burton in the pub with his father and brother in Pontrhydyfen

Richard Burton on the Dick Cavett Show, July 1980

|- !colspan="3" style="background:#C1D8FF;"| Husband of Elizabeth Taylor

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ar:ريتشارد بورتن an:Richard Burton bcl:Richard Burton ca:Richard Burton cs:Richard Burton cy:Richard Burton (actor) da:Richard Burton de:Richard Burton el:Ρίτσαρντ Μπάρτον es:Richard Burton eo:Richard Burton eu:Richard Burton fa:ریچارد برتون fr:Richard Burton (acteur) fy:Richard Burton ga:Richard Burton ko:리처드 버턴 (1925년) hr:Richard Burton id:Richard Burton it:Richard Burton he:ריצ'רד ברטון kn:ರಿಚರ್ಡ್ ಬರ್ಟನ್ la:Ricardus Burton hu:Richard Burton mn:Ричард Бартон nl:Richard Burton (acteur) ja:リチャード・バートン no:Richard Burton pl:Richard Burton pt:Richard Burton ro:Richard Burton ru:Бёртон, Ричард (актёр) simple:Richard Burton sk:Richard Burton sr:Ричард Бартон sh:Richard Burton fi:Richard Burton sv:Richard Burton tl:Richard Burton tr:Richard Burton uk:Річард Бартон zh:理查德·伯顿

birth name	Peter Michael Falk
birth date	September 16, 1927
death date	June 23, 2011
birth place	New York City, US
death place	Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
death cause	Pneumonia
occupation	Actor
nationality	American
education	Ossining High School
alma mater	Hamilton College
years active	1956–2008
spouse	Alyce Mayo(m. 1960–1976; divorced)Shera Danese(m. 1977–2011; his death)
children	2 daughters
author	Just One More Thing: Stories from My Life (Thorndike Press, 2006) ISBN 978-0-7862-9288-2
website	PeterFalk.com }}

Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011) was an American actor, best known for his role as Lt. Frank Columbo in the television series ''Columbo''. He appeared in numerous films such as ''The Princess Bride'', ''The Great Race'' and ''Next'', and television guest roles. He was nominated for an Academy Award twice (for 1960's ''Murder, Inc.'' and 1961's ''Pocketful of Miracles''), and won the Emmy Award on five occasions (four for ''Columbo'') and the Golden Globe award once. Director William Friedkin, when discussing Falk's role in his 1978 film ''The Brink's Job,'' said that "Peter has a great range from comedy to drama. He could break your heart or he could make you laugh."

In 1968, he starred with Gene Barry in a ninety-minute television pilot about a highly-skilled, laid-back detective. ''Columbo'' eventually became part of an anthology series titled ''The NBC Mystery Movie'', along with ''McCloud'' and ''McMillan & Wife''. The detective series stayed on NBC from 1971 to 1978, took a respite, and returned occasionally on ABC from 1989 to 2003. Falk was "everyone's favorite rumpled television detective", wrote historian David Fantle.

In 1996 TV Guide ranked him number 21 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list.

Early life

Born in New York City, Falk was the son of Michael Peter Falk, owner of a clothing and dry goods store, and his wife, Madeline (née Hochhauser), an accountant and buyer. His family was Jewish; his father was of Russian ancestry and his mother was of Bohemian descent.

Falk's right eye was surgically removed when he was three because of a retinoblastoma; he wore a glass eye for most of his life. Despite this, Falk participated in team sports, mainly baseball and basketball, as a boy. In a 1997 interview in ''Cigar Aficionado'' magazine with Arthur Marx, Falk said, "I remember once in high school the umpire called me out at third base when I was sure I was safe. I got so mad I took out my glass eye, handed it to him and said, 'Try this.' I got such a laugh you wouldn't believe."

Falk's first stage appearance was at the age of 12 in ''The Pirates of Penzance'' at Camp High Point in upstate New York, where one of his camp counselors was Ross Martin (they would later act together in ''The Great Race'' and the ''Columbo'' episode "Suitable For Framing"). Falk attended Ossining High School in Westchester County, New York, where he was a star athlete and president of his senior class. After graduating from high school in 1945, Falk briefly attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and then tried to join the armed services as World War II was drawing to a close. Rejected because of his glass eye, he joined the United States Merchant Marine, and served as a cook and mess boy. "There they don't care if you're blind or not", Falk said in 1997. "The only one on a ship who has to see is the captain. And in the case of the ''Titanic'', he couldn't see very well, either."

After a year and a half in the Merchant Marine, Falk returned to Hamilton College and also attended the University of Wisconsin. He transferred to the New School for Social Research in New York City, which awarded him a bachelor's degree in literature and political science in 1951. He then traveled in Europe and worked on a railroad in Yugoslavia for six months. He returned to New York, enrolling at Syracuse University,

Falk obtained a Master of Public Administration degree at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University in 1953. The program was designed to train civil servants for the federal government, a career that Falk said in his memoir that he had "no interest in and no aptitude for." He applied for a job with the CIA, but was rejected because of his membership in the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union while serving in the Merchant Marine, even though he was required to join and was not active in the union. He then became a management analyst with the Connecticut State Budget Bureau in Hartford. Falk characterized his Hartford job as "efficiency expert". "I was such an efficiency expert that the first morning on the job, I couldn't find the building where I was to report for work", he said in 1997. "Naturally, I was late, which I always was in those days, but ironically it was my tendency never to be on time that got me started as a professional actor." His next theater role proved far better for his career. In May, he appeared at Circle in the Square in a revival of ''The Iceman Cometh'' with Jason Robards playing the bartender.

Falk made his Broadway debut also in 1956, appearing in Alexander Ostrovsky's ''Diary of a Scoundrel''. As the year came to an end, he appeared again on Broadway as an English soldier in Shaw's ''Saint Joan'', with Siobhán McKenna. In 1972, he appeared in Broadway's ''The Prisoner of Second Avenue''. According to film historian Ephraim Katz, "His characters derive added authenticity from his squinty gaze, the result of the loss of an eye ..."

Early films

Despite his stage success, a theatrical agent advised Falk not to expect much film acting work because of his glass eye. His first film performances were in small roles in ''Wind Across the Everglades'' (1958), ''The Bloody Brood'' (1959) and ''Pretty Boy Floyd'' (1960).

Falk's performance in ''Murder, Inc.'' (1960) was a turning point in his career. He was cast in the supporting role of killer Abe Reles, in a film based on the real-life murder gang of that name, that had terrorized New York in the 1930s. ''The New York Times'' film critic Bosley Crowther, while dismissing the movie as "an average gangster film", singled out Falk's "amusingly vicious performance."

The film turned out to be Falk's breakout role. In his autobiography, ''Just One More Thing'' (2006), Falk said that his selection for the film from thousands of other Off-Broadway actors was a "miracle" that "made my career" and that without it, he would not have gotten the other significant movie roles that he later played. Falk, who played Reles again in the 1960 TV series ''The Witness'', for his performance in the episode "Cold Turkey" of James Whitmore's short-lived series ''The Law and Mr. Jones'' on ABC. On September 29, 1961, Falk and Walter Matthau guest-starred in the premiere episode, "The Million Dollar Dump," of ABC's crime drama ''Target: The Corruptors!,'' with Stephen McNally. He won an Emmy for ''The Price of Tomatoes,'' a Dick Powell TV drama in 1962.

''Columbo''

Although Falk appeared in numerous other television roles in the 1960s and 1970s, he is best known as the star of the TV series ''Columbo'', "everyone's favorite rumpled television detective", writes historian David Fantle. His character was a shabby and ostensibly absent-minded police detective lieutenant, who had first appeared in the 1968 film ''Prescription: Murder''. Falk described his role to Fantle:

Television critic Ben Falk adds that Falk "created an iconic cop ... who always got his man (or woman) after a tortuous cat-and-mouse investigation." He notes also that the idea for the character was "apparently inspired by Dostoyevsky's dogged police inspector, Porfiry Petrovich, in the novel ''Crime and Punishment''.

Falk tries to analyze the character and notes the correlation between his own personality and Columbo's:

With "general amazement", Falk notes that "the show is all over the world". He added, "I've been to little villages in Africa with maybe one TV set, and little kids will run up to me shouting, 'Columbo, Columbo!'" Singer Johnny Cash recalled acting in one episode, and although he was not an experienced actor, he writes in his autobiography, "Peter Falk was good to me. I wasn't at all confident about handling a dramatic role, and every day he helped me in all kinds of little ways."

The debut episode in 1971 was directed by 25-year-old Steven Spielberg in one of his earliest directing roles. Falk recalled the episode to Spielberg biographer Joseph McBride:

The character of Columbo had previously been played by Bert Freed in a single TV episode and by Thomas Mitchell on Broadway. Falk first played Columbo in ''Prescription: Murder'', a 1968 TV-movie, and from 1971 to 1978 ''Columbo'' aired regularly on NBC as part of the umbrella series ''NBC Mystery Movie''. All episodes were of TV-movie length, in a 90 or 120 minutes slot including commercials. The show returned on ABC in the form of a less frequent series of TV-movies, still starring Falk, from 1989 until 2003.

The series was so popular that co-creator William Link wrote a series of short stories published as ''The Columbo Collection'' (Crippen & Landru, 2010) which includes a drawing by Falk of himself as Columbo, and the cover features a caricature of Falk/Columbo by Al Hirschfeld.

Later career

Falk was a close friend of independent film director John Cassavetes and appeared in Cassavetes' films ''Husbands'', ''A Woman Under the Influence'', and, in a cameo, at the end of ''Opening Night''. Cassavetes, in turn, guest-starred in the ''Columbo'' episode "Étude in Black" in 1972. Falk describes his experiences working with Cassavetes, and specifically remembers his directing strategies such as "shooting an actor when he might be unaware the camera was running."

In 1978, he appeared on the comedy TV show ''The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast'', where Frank Sinatra was the evening's victim.

Falk continued to work in films, including his performance as a questionable ex-CIA agent of dubious sanity in the comedy ''The In-Laws''. Director Arthur Hiller said during an interview that the "film started out because Alan Arkin and Peter Falk wanted to work together. They went to Warner's and said, 'We'd like to do a picture,' and Warner's said fine ... and out came ''The In-laws'' ... of all the films I've done, ''The In-laws'' is the one I get the most comments on." Movie critic Roger Ebert compared the film with a later remake:

He also appeared in ''The Princess Bride'', ''Murder By Death'', ''The Cheap Detective'', ''Vibes'', ''Made'', and (as himself) in Wim Wenders' 1987 film ''Wings of Desire'' and its 1993 sequel, ''Faraway, So Close!''. In 1998, Falk returned to the New York stage to star in an Off-Broadway production of Arthur Miller's ''Mr. Peters' Connections''. His previous stage work included shady real estate salesman Shelley "the Machine" Levine in a Boston/Los Angeles production of David Mamet's prizewinning ''Glengarry Glen Ross''.

Falk also starred in such holiday television movies as ''A Town Without Christmas'' (2001), ''Finding John Christmas'' (2003) and ''When Angels Come to Town'' (2004). In 2005, he starred in ''The Thing About My Folks''. Although movie critic Roger Ebert was not impressed with most of the other actors, he writes in his review, " ... we discover once again what a warm and engaging actor Peter Falk is. I can't recommend the movie, but I can be grateful that I saw it, for Falk." In 2007, Falk appeared with Nicolas Cage in the thriller ''Next''.

Personal life

Falk married Alyce Mayo, whom he had met when they were both students at Syracuse University, on April 17, 1960. They adopted two daughters, Catherine (who is a private investigator) and Jackie. They divorced in 1976. On December 7, 1977, Falk married actress Shera Danese, who guest-starred on the ''Columbo'' series on numerous occasions.

Falk was an accomplished artist, and in October 2006 he had an exhibition of his artwork at the Butler Institute of American Art. He took classes at the Art Students League of New York for many years. Examples of his sketches can be seen on his official website.

Falk was also a chess aficionado and was a spectator at the American Open in Santa Monica, California, in November 1972, and at the U.S. Open in Pasadena, California, in August 1983.

His memoir, ''Just One More Thing'' (ISBN 978-0786717958) was published by Carroll & Graf on August 23, 2006.

Of death, he once said, "It is just the gateway."

Failing health and death

Rumors of Falk's dementia plagued the actor in the final years of his life; exacerbated when in late April 2008, Falk was photographed by Paparazzi looking disheveled and acting animated in the streets of Beverly Hills. Though the actor said his behavior was due to his frustration over being unable to remember where he had parked his car, the images of his erratic appearance and behavior were published by the media, and Falk was seldom seen in public after the incident.

At a two-day conservatorship trial in Los Angeles in June 2009, one of Falk's personal physicians, Dr. Stephen Read, reported that Falk had rapidly slipped into dementia after a series of dental operations in 2007. Dr. Read said it was unclear whether Falk's condition had worsened as a result of anesthesia or some other reaction to the operations. He went on to add that Falk's condition was so bad he could no longer remember the character of Columbo. Shera Danese Falk was appointed as her husband's conservator.

The 83-year-old Falk died at his longtime Roxbury Drive Beverly Hills home on the evening of June 23, 2011. The cause of death was later revealed as cardiorespiratory arrest, with pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease as underlying causes. Falk was survived by his wife and two daughters. His daughters said they would remember his "wisdom and humor". Falk is buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

Falk's death was greeted with tributes from many film celebrities. Steven Spielberg said, "I learned more about acting from him at that early stage of my career than I had from anyone else." Stephen Fry tweeted that Columbo was "TV’s greatest ever detective." Rob Reiner said, "He was a completely unique actor," and went on to say that Falk's work with Alan Arkin in ''The In-Laws'' was "one of the most brilliant comedy pairings we've seen on screen."

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1959	''The Bloody Brood''	Nico
		Abe Reles
''The Secret of the Purple Reef''	Tom Weber
1961	''Pocketful of Miracles''	Joy Boy
1962		Young Psychiatrist
		Police Chief
''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World''	Cab Driver
	''Robin and the 7 Hoods''	Guy Gisborne
''Attack and Retreat (Italiani brava gente)''	Medic	Italian production
1965	''The Great Race''	Max
		Lieutenant Horatio Bixbee
''Too Many Thieves''	Danny
1967		Milt Manville
1968		Corporal Jack Rabinoff	Alternative titles: ''The Battle of Anzio'', ''Lo Sbarco di Anzio'' (Italian)
	''Machine Gun McCain''	Charlie Adamo	Alternative titles: ''For a Price'', ''Gli intoccabili'' (Italian)
''Castle Keep''	Sergeant Rossi
		Archie Black	Directed by John Cassavetes
	Peter Pawney
1974	''A Woman Under the Influence''	Nick Longhetti	Directed by John Cassavetes
	''Murder by Death''	Sam Diamond
''Mikey and Nicky''	Mikey
	Geoffrey Griffin
1977		Cameo appearance	Directed by John Cassavetes
	''The Brink's Job''	Tony Pino
''The Cheap Detective''	Lou Peckinpaugh	Alternative title: ''Neil Simon's The Cheap Detective''
''Scared Straight!''	Himself – Host	Documentary; directed by Arnold Shapiro
1979		Vincent J. Ricardo
	''...All the Marbles''	Harry Sears	Alternative title: ''The California Dolls''
''The Great Muppet Caper''	Tramp	(uncredited)
1986		Steve Rickey	Directed by John Cassavetes
		Grandfather/Narrator
	Nick	Directed by John G. Avildsen
''Wings of Desire''	Himself	Directed by Wim Wenders
1988		Harry Buscafusco	Alternative title: ''Vibes: The Secret of the Golden Pyramids''
1989		Dominick "Dino" Capisco
1990	''Tune in Tomorrow''	Pedro Carmichael	Alternative title: ''Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter''
1993	''Faraway, So Close!''	Himself	Directed by Wim Wenders
1995		Rocky Holzcek
1998		Vinnie Glynn
		Max
''Corky Romano''	Francis A. "Pops" Romano	Alternative title: ''Corky Romano: 'Special' Agent''
2002		Mendy Ripstein
2004	''Shark Tale''	Don Feinberg	Voice
2005	''The Thing About My Folks''	Sam Kleinman
2005		Morris Applebaum
2007		Irv
2009	''American Cowslip''	Father Randolph
Television
Year	Show	Role	Notes
1958	''Kraft Suspense Theatre''	Izzy	1 episode
1959		Fred Dana	1 episode
	''Have Gun–Will Travel''	Waller	1 episode
	Duke Mullen	1 episode, "The Underworld Bank"
	''The Twilight Zone''	Ramos Clemente
''The Barbara Stanwyck Show''	Joe	1 episode, "The Assassin"
1962	''The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	greedy preacher	Episode 13: Bonfire
1962		Lopez	1 episode
1963	''Wagon Train''	Gus Morgan	1 episode
1964	''Ben Casey''	Dr. Jimmy Reynolds	2 episodes
1965–1966	''The Trials of O'Brien''	Daniel O'Brien	22 episodes
1968	''A Hatful of Rain''	Polo Pope	1 episode
1968–2003	''Columbo''	Lt. Frank Columbo	69 episodes
1971		Lewis Corbett	1 episode
1978	''The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast'' (comedy)	Guest appearance	with Frank Sinatra — Watch
1995		Willie Clark	Television movie
2001		Reverend Theo Kerr	Television movie
2001	''A Town Without Christmas''	Max	Television Movie
2003	''Finding John Christmas''	Max	Television movie
2004	''When Angels Come To Town''	Max	Television Movie

References

External links

Peter Falk at Emmys.com

Category:1927 births Category:2011 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:American film actors Category:American people of Czech-Jewish descent Category:American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:American sailors Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:American television producers Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (television) winners Category:Cancer survivors Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Jewish actors Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Category:Syracuse University alumni Category:The New School alumni Category:People from Ossining, New York Category:Actors from New York City

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