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For the ancient Roman title, see Roman dictator.

A dictator is a ruler (e.g. absolutist or autocratic) who assumes sole and absolute power (sometimes, but not always, with military control or bribes) but not officially sanctioned by heritage, as in an absolute monarch.^[1] When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship. The word originated as the title of a magistrate in ancient Rome appointed by the Senate to rule the republic in times of emergency (see Roman dictator and justitium).^[2]

Like the term "tyrant" (which was originally a respectable Ancient Greek title), and to a lesser degree "autocrat", "dictator" came to be used almost exclusively as a non-titular term for oppressive, even abusive rule, yet had rare modern titular uses.^{[citation needed]}

In modern usage, the term "dictator" is generally used to describe a leader who holds and/or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power, especially the power to make laws without effective restraint by a legislative assembly^{[citation needed]}. Dictatorships are often characterized by some of the following traits: suspension of elections and of civil liberties; proclamation of a state of emergency; rule by decree; repression of political opponents without abiding by rule of law procedures; these include single-party state, and cult of personality.^{[citation needed]}

The term "dictator" is comparable to, but not synonymous with, the ancient concept of a tyrant; initially "tyrant", like "dictator", did not carry negative connotations. A wide variety of leaders coming to power in a number of different kinds of regimes, such as military juntas, single-party states and civilian governments under personal rule, have been described as dictators. They may hold left or right-wing views, or can even be apolitical.

Roman origin[link]

In the Roman Republic the term "Dictator" did not have the negative meaning it has later assumed. Rather, a Dictator was a person given sole power (unlike the normal Roman republican practice, where rule was divided between two equal Consuls) for a specific limited period, in order to deal with an emergency. At the end of his term, the Dictator was supposed to hand power over to the normal Consular rule and give account of his actions - and Roman Dictators usually did.

The term started to get its modern negative meaning with Cornelius Sulla's ascension to the dictatorship following Sulla's second civil war, making himself the first Dictator in more than a century (during which the office was ostensibly abolished) as well as de facto eliminating the time limit and need of senatorial acclamation, although he avoided a major constitutional crisis by resigning the office after about one year due to poor health, dying shortly after. Caesar followed the example in 49 BC and in February 44 BC was proclaimed Dictator perpetuo, "Dictator in perpetuity", officially doing away with any limitations on his power, which he kept until his assassination the following month.

Garibaldi as a positive dictator[link]

Still, even in the 19th Century, the term "Dictator" did not always have negative connotations. For example, the Italian revolutionary Garibaldi, during his famous Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, proclaimed himself "Dictator of Sicily", which did not prevent him from being extremely popular in Italian and international public opinion. His usage of the term was clearly derived from the original Roman sense - i.e., a person taking power for a limited time in order to deal with an emergency (in this case, the need to unite Italy) and with the task done Garibaldi handed over power to the government of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.

Garibaldi's case was, however, an exception. In general, the term "dictator" came to be a negative term, not a title used by rulers to call themselves but a term used by the foes of an oppressive ruler. Such was the case with Maximillien Robespierre, whose supporters knew him as "The Incorruptible", while his opponents called him "dictateur sanguinaire", French for "bloodthirsty dictator".

Modern era [link]

In popular usage in western nations, "dictatorship" is often associated with brutality and oppression. As a result, it is often also used as a term of abuse for political opponents.The term has also come to be associated with megalomania. Many dictators create a cult of personality and have come to favor increasingly grandiloquent titles and honours for themselves. For instance, Idi Amin Dada, who had been a British army lieutenant prior to Uganda's independence from Britain in October 1962, subsequently styled himself as "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor^[A] Idi Amin Dada, VC,^[B] DSO, MC, Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular".^[3] In the movie "The Great Dictator" (1940), Charlie Chaplin satirized not only Adolf Hitler but the institution of dictatorship itself.

The association between the dictator and the military is a common one; many dictators take great pains to emphasize their connections with the military and often wear military uniforms. In some cases, this is perfectly legitimate; Francisco Franco was a lieutenant general in the Spanish Army before he became Chief of State of Spain; Manuel Noriega was officially commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces. In other cases, the association is mere pretense.

Modern use in formal titles [link]

Because of the negative associations, modern leaders very rarely (if ever) use the term in their formal titles. In the 19th century, however, official use was more common.

Dictator (plain) [link]

• Italy
  • In the former doge-state Venice, and while it was a republic resisting annexation by either the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia or the Austrian empire, a former Chief Executive (president, 23 March 1848 – 5 July 1848), Daniele Manin (b. 1804 - d. 1857), was styled Dictator 11–13 August 1848 before joining the 13 August 1848 - 7 March 1849 Triumvirate.^{[citation needed]}

• Philippines
  • Emilio Aguinaldo, the last President of the Supreme Government Council 23 March 1897 - 16 December 1897 and chairman of the Revolutionary Government from 23 June to 1 November 1897, was dictator from 12 June 1898 - 23 January.^[4]
• Poland
  • Józef Chlopicki was styled Dictator from 5 December 1830 - December 1830 and again in December 1830 - 25 January 1831
  • Jan Tyssowski was Dictator from 24 February 1846 - 2 March 1846.
  • Ludwik Mierosławski was Dictator from 22 January 1863 - 10 March 1863
  • Marian Langiewicz was Dictator from 10 March 1863 - 19 March 1863
  • An Executive Dictatorial Commission of three members existed from 19 March 1863 - 20 March 1863
  • Romuald Traugutt was Dictator from 17 October 1863 - 10 April 1864
• Russia during the Civil War
  • Nazarov was Dictator of the Don Republic (which before, since its founding on 2 December 1917 at Novocherkassk, had been governed by a Triumvirate including the last pre-Soviet Ataman, Aleksei Maksimovich Kaledin) from 11 February 1918 till 25 February 1918 when Bolshevik troops ended their existence^{[citation needed]}
  • Prince N. Tarkovsky was Dictator of the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus,

Dictators in game theory [link]

In social choice theory, the notion of a dictator is formally defined as a person who can achieve any feasible social outcome he/she wishes. The formal definition yields an interesting distinction between two different types of dictators.

• The strong dictator has, for any social goal he/she has in mind (e.g. raise taxes, having someone killed, etc.), a definite way of achieving that goal. This can be seen as having explicit absolute power, like Sulla.
• The weak dictator has, for any social goal he/she has in mind, and for any political scenario, a course of action that would bring about the desired goal. For the weak dictator, it is usually not enough to "give their orders", rather he/she has to manipulate the political scene appropriately. This means that the weak dictator might actually be lurking in the shadows, working within a political setup that seems to be non-dictatorial. An example of such a figure is Lorenzo the Magnificent, who controlled Renaissance Florence.

Note that these definitions disregard some alleged dictators, e.g. Benito Mussolini, who are not interested in the actual achieving of social goals, as much as in propaganda and controlling public opinion. Monarchs and military dictators are also excluded from these definitions, because their rule relies on the consent of other political powers (the barons or the army).

See also [link]

• Dictatorship
• Dictatorship of the proletariat
• Dictator novel
• Governor-General
• Heads of state timeline
• List of political leaders who suspended the constitution
• List of political leaders who held active military ranks in office
• List of successful coups d'état
• List of modern dictators
• Military dictatorship
• Military rule (disambiguation)
• President for life
• Roman dictator
• Rule by decree
• Single party state
• Supreme Leader (disambiguation)
• Tyranny

Notes[link]

• A ^ He conferred a doctorate of law on himself from Makerere University.^[5]
• B ^ The Victorious Cross (VC) was a medal made to emulate the British Victoria Cross.^[6]

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up dictator in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• The Dictator Movie
• List of current world dictators
• WorldStatesmen
• The World's Worst Dictators - slideshow by Life magazine

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dictator

Sacha Baron Cohen
Baron Cohen at the New York City premiere of Hugo on 21 November 2011
Born	Sacha Noam Baron Cohen (1971-10-13) 13 October 1971 (age 40) Hammersmith, London, England
Alma mater	Cambridge University
Occupation	Stand-up comedian, writer, actor, voice actor
Years active	1995–present
Notable work(s)	Ali G Borat Brüno Admiral General Aladeen
Spouse	Isla Fisher (m. 2010) «start: (2010-03-15)»"Marriage: Isla Fisher to Sacha Baron Cohen" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.db.wn.com/index.php/Sacha_Baron_Cohen)[1]
Children	2 daughters

Sacha Noam Baron Cohen^[2] (born 13 October 1971) is an English stand-up comedian, writer, actor, and voice actor. A graduate of Cambridge University,^[3] Baron Cohen is most widely known for writing and playing four unorthodox fictional characters: Ali G, Borat, Brüno, and Admiral General Aladeen. In his routines, Baron Cohen's characters interact with unsuspecting people who do not realise they are being set up for comic situations and self-revealing ridicule.

Baron Cohen was named Best Newcomer at the 1999 British Comedy Awards for The 11 O'Clock Show, and since then, his work has been further recognised with two BAFTA Awards for Da Ali G Show, several Emmy nominations, a nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay, and a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his work in the feature film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. After the release of Borat, Baron Cohen stated that because the public had become too familiar with the characters, he would retire Borat and Ali G. Similarly, after the release of Brüno, Baron Cohen has stated he would also retire the title character.^[4]

Early life[link]

Baron Cohen, the middle of three brothers, was born in Hammersmith, West London. His mother, Daniella Naomi (née Weiser), was born in Israel, and his father, Gerald Baron Cohen, an accountant, is a native of London.^[5][6] Baron Cohen has two brothers: Erran and Amnon.^[7] His family is Jewish.^[8] His paternal grandfather, Morris Cohen, who was from Pontypridd, Wales, had added "Baron" to his surname.^[6][9] His maternal grandmother, who lives in Haifa, Israel, trained as a ballet dancer in Germany.^{[5][10][11][12]} Erran is a composer and has worked on several of his films. Internationally renowned autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen is his cousin.^[13] Baron Cohen attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, a private school in Elstree, Hertfordshire, north of London.^[14] He went on to the University of Cambridge, entering Christ's College, Cambridge, where he read history.^[15] While attending the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club, Baron Cohen acted in the plays Fiddler on the Roof and Cyrano de Bergerac, and performed in Habonim Dror Jewish theatre performances.^[16]

Early roles[link]

After leaving university, Baron Cohen worked for a time as a fashion model, appearing in many fashion magazines.^[16] By the early 1990s, he was hosting a weekly programme on Windsor cable television's local broadcasts with Carol Kirkwood, who later became a BBC weather forecaster. In 1995, Channel 4 was planning a replacement for its series The Word, and disseminated an open call for new television presenters. Baron Cohen sent in a tape of himself in the character of Kristo, a fictional television reporter (who developed into the Kazakh Borat Sagdiyev), which caught the attention of a producer. Baron Cohen hosted Pump TV from 1995–1996. In 1996, he began presenting the youth chat programme F2F for Granada Talk TV. He took clown training in Paris, at the Ecole Philippe Gaulier, studying under master-clown Philippe Gaulier. Of his former pupil, Gaulier says: "He was a good clown, full of spirit".^[17] In the late 1990s, Baron Cohen made his first feature film appearance in the British comedy The Jolly Boys' Last Stand. In 2000, Baron Cohen played the part of Super Greg for a series of TV advertisements for Lee Jeans; the advertisements never aired but the website for Super Greg created an internet sensation.^[18]

Characters[link]

Ali G[link]

Baron Cohen as Ali G, offering a speech at Harvard University's Class Day during Commencement ceremonies

Baron Cohen appeared during two-minute sketches as his fashion reporter Brüno on the Paramount Comedy Channel during 1998. He shot to fame when his comic character Ali G, an uneducated, boorish junglist, hailing from Staines (a suburban town in Middlesex, to the west of London), started appearing on the British television show The 11 O'Clock Show on Channel 4, which first went to air 8 September 1998. A year after the premiere of the show, GQ named him comedian of the year.^[19] He won Best Newcomer at the 1999 British Comedy Awards, and was nominated for Best British Entertainment Performance at the British Academy Television Awards.^[19]

Da Ali G Show began in 2000, and won the BAFTA for Best Comedy in the following year.^[20] Also in 2000, Baron Cohen as Ali G appeared as the limousine driver in Madonna's 2000 video "Music", directed by Jonas Åkerlund, who was also responsible for directing the titles for Da Ali G Show.

In 2002, Ali G was the central character in the feature film Ali G Indahouse, in which he is elected to the British Parliament and foils a plot to bulldoze a community centre in his hometown, Staines.^[21] His television show was exported to the United States in 2003, with new episodes set there, for HBO.

Ali G's interviews with celebrities (often politicians) gained notoriety partly because the subjects were not privy to the joke that Ali G, rather than being a real interviewer, was a comic character played by Baron Cohen. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Baron Cohen would always enter the interview area in character as Ali G, carrying equipment and appearing to be an insignificant crew member. He would arrive with a suited man, whom the interviewee naturally thought was the interviewer. Baron Cohen, as Ali G, would sit down to begin conducting the interview by asking the interviewee some preliminary questions. The interviewee, however, would remain under the impression that the smartly-dressed director would be conducting the interview until short notice prior to cameras rolling: this would grant an advantage of surprise, whereby the interviewee would be less likely to opt out of the Ali interview prior to its start.^[22]

The resulting willingness of Baron Cohen's targets to answer his frequently risqué questions often created surprising conversations. Interviewees have included:

• astronaut Buzz Aldrin
• politician and consumer advocate Ralph Nader
• writer Gore Vidal
• real estate mogul Donald Trump
• former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop
• basketball players Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O'Neal, Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Richard Jefferson, Tim Duncan, Ben Wallace and Robert Horry
• former US Secretary of State James Baker III
• former US Attorney General Dick Thornburgh
• businessman and billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed
• Professor Heinz Wolff
• former US Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
• political commentator Pat Buchanan
• Professor Noam Chomsky
• footballer David Beckham and his wife, ex-Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, for the UK's Comic Relief
• former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali (whom Baron Cohen, in his Ali G character, referred to as 'Boutros Boutros Boutros-Ghali')
• former Conservative Party MP Neil Hamilton
• journalist Andy Rooney
• Labour politician Tony Benn
• DUP politician Sammy Wilson

Baron Cohen is a supporter of Comic Relief and as Ali G has hosted some interviews for the benefit of the charity.^[23]

Borat[link]

Baron Cohen as Borat, 2006

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, a feature film with Borat at the centre, was screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and released in the United Kingdom on 2 November 2006, in the United States on 3 November 2006 and Australia 23 November 2006. The film is about a journey across the United States in an ice cream truck, in which the main character is obsessed with the idea of marrying Pamela Anderson. The film is a mockumentary which includes interviews with various American citizens that poke fun at American culture, as well as sexism, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, jingoism and Baywatch.

It debuted at the #1 spot in the US, taking in an estimated $26.4 million in just 837 theatres averaging $31,600 per theatre, the fourth highest per-theatre average of all time for movies opening wide (500 screens or more), behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Spider-Man.

Baron Cohen won the 2007 Golden Globe in the "Best Actor – Musical or Comedy" category, his sixth such award. Although Borat was up for "Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy", the film lost to Dreamgirls. On 23 January 2007, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He shared his nomination with the film's co-writers, Ant Hines, Peter Baynham, Sy Mordecai Finesto, Dan Mazer, and Todd Phillips.

Aside from the comic elements of his characters, Baron Cohen's performances are interpreted by some as reflecting uncomfortable truths about his audience. He juxtaposes his own Jewish lineage with the anti-Semitism of his character Borat.^[24]

In 2007, Baron Cohen published a travel guide as Borat, with dual titles: Borat: Touristic Guidings To Minor Nation of U.S. and A. and Borat: Touristic Guidings To Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.^[25]

On 21 December 2007, Baron Cohen announced he was retiring the character of Borat.^[26]

Brüno[link]

Another alter ego Sacha Baron Cohen performed as is 'Brüno', a flamboyantly gay, allegedly-19-year-old, Austrian fashion show presenter who often lures his unwitting subjects into making provocative statements and engaging in embarrassing behaviour, as well as leading them to contradict themselves, often in the same interview. Brüno asks the subjects to answer 'yes or no' questions with either "Vassup" (whats up) or "Ich don't think so" (No); these are occasionally substituted with "Ach, ja!" (Ah yes!) or "Nicht, nicht" ("Nicht" means "not" in German). In one segment on Da Ali G Show, he encouraged his guest to answer questions with either "Keep them in the ghetto" or "Train to Auschwitz". Brüno's main comedic satire pertains to the vacuity and inanity of the fashion and clubbing world. In May 2009, at the MTV Movie Awards, Baron Cohen appeared as 'Brüno' wearing a white angel costume, a white jock strap, white go-go boots, and white wings; and did an aerial stunt where he dropped from a height (using wires) onto Eminem. Baron Cohen landed on Eminem's lap, with his rear in Eminem's face, prompting Eminem to exit the venue with fellow rappers D12. Eminem later admitted to staging the stunt with Baron Cohen.^[27]

Film[link]

After an intense bidding war that included such Hollywood powerhouses as DreamWorks, Sony, and 20th Century Fox; Universal Pictures paid a reported $42.5 million for the film rights.^[28] A number of shill companies and websites were created in order to draw potential interviewees into interviews by creating an illusion of legitimacy.^[29] The film was released in July 2009.

The Dictator[link]

Baron Cohen's 2012 film, The Dictator, was described by its press as "the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed".^[30] Baron Cohen played Admiral General Aladeen, a dictator from a fictional country called the Republic of Wadiya.^[31][32] Borat and Bruno film director Larry Charles directed the film.^[33] The main target of the film's satire was Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was still alive when the film was written.^[34] The producers of the film were concerned it would anger Gaddafi, possibly even resulting in a terrorist attack, so they released deliberate misinformation saying that the film was loosely based on a romance novel written by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.^[34][35]

On 26 February 2012, Baron Cohen was allegedly banned from attending the 84th Academy Awards in his role as Admiral General Aladeen but the rumour was denied by the Academy, saying "we haven't banned him. We're just waiting to hear what he's going to do" but made it clear that "Cohen is not welcome to use the red carpet as a platform for a promotional stunt".^[36] Cohen eventually appeared at the awards' red carpet with a pair of uniformed female bodyguards, holding an urn which he claimed was filled with the ashes of Kim Jong-il. The "ashes", which Baron Cohen admitted to Howard Stern on the Tuesday, May 8, 2012 episode of The Howard Stern Show was flour, were "accidentally" spilled onto Ryan Seacrest.

Performer versus characters[link]

Baron Cohen has often been confused with the identity of one of his characters. When he posed as Borat to host the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon, the central Hungarian news wire agency MTI reported that the host was 'Borat Sagdiyev'.^[37] As most Hungarian newspapers and television networks take MTI as their official source, the misinterpretation of the character spread rapidly in Hungary, with some sources (such as TV2) emphasising that a Kazakh news reporter hosted the awards, while others (such as Index.hu) noticed and pointed out the error.^[38]

Controversies and criticism[link]

Baron Cohen has encountered many controversies regarding some of his comic characters:

Sacha Baron Cohen at the E! after party, January 2007.

In an interview with former British MP Neil Hamilton in 2000, Ali G offered Hamilton what was allegedly cannabis, which Hamilton accepted and smoked, creating some minor controversy in the British media.^[39]

At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, Borat introduced Gnarls Barkley's performance of "Crazy", where he made a comment about Jessica Simpson, saying that he liked her mouth and that he could see it clearly through her denim pants.

At the 2006 UK premiere of Borat, he arrived in Leicester Square in a cart pulled by a mule and a number of "Kazakh women", announcing: "Good evening, gentleman and prostitutes. After this I stay in a hotel in Kings Cross. We will all drink, wrestle with no clothes on and shoot dogs from the window."^[40]

Baron Cohen has had some trouble because of racist or prejudiced comments his characters have made (see Da Ali G Show). HBO spokesman Quentin Schaffer has replied to criticism concerning Baron Cohen's characters, "Through his alter-egos, he delivers an obvious satire that exposes people's ignorance and prejudice in much the same way All in the Family did years ago."^[41] Regarding his portrayal as the anti-Semitic Borat, Baron Cohen says the segments are a "dramatic demonstration of how racism feeds on dumb conformity, as much as rabid bigotry", rather than a display of racism by Baron Cohen himself.^[42] "Borat essentially works as a tool. By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice", Baron Cohen explains.^[11] Addressing the same topic in an NPR interview with Robert Siegel, Baron Cohen says "...and I think that's quite an interesting thing with Borat, which is people really let down their guard with him because they're in a room with somebody who seems to have these outrageous opinions. They sometimes feel much more relaxed about letting their own outrageous, politically incorrect, prejudiced opinions come out."^[43]

Baron Cohen, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, says he also wishes in particular to expose the role of indifference in that genocide. "When I was in university, there was this major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw, who said, 'The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.' I know it's not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but it's an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic."^[11] Regarding the enthusiastic response to his song, "In My Country There Is Problem" (also known as "Throw the Jew Down the Well"), he says, "Did it reveal that they were anti-Semitic? Perhaps. But maybe it just revealed that they were indifferent to anti-Semitism."^[11]

Baron Cohen walked onto the runway during the Ágatha Ruiz de la Prada fashion show in Milan on 26 September 2008. In the character of one of his alter-egos Brüno, he was wearing a costume made out of velcro. He appeared on the stage with a blanket and items of clothing stuck to his velcro suit. Lights were turned off while security intervened and escorted him off the stage, and the fashion show resumed normally shortly thereafter. Baron Cohen and his team allegedly accessed the fashion show using fake IDs.^[44]

During an appearance on Late Show with David Letterman,^[when?] Baron Cohen stated he was restricted from answering David Letterman's question as to how he managed to get an interview with Pat Buchanan while in character as Ali G due to pending "legal reasons".^[45]

While introducing an award at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, Baron Cohen was lowered upside-down from the rafters dressed as an angel right into rapper Eminem's lap after an apparently staged problem with his wire harness. Baron Cohen had only a jockstrap on underneath and fully exposed his buttocks in Eminem's face. Eminem swore repeatedly, demanding that his friends, members of D12, each of whom were sitting next to Eminem, remove Baron Cohen, then left the auditorium.^[46] Baron Cohen then announced the winner (Zac Efron) while still hanging from the wires above the stage. It was later revealed that Eminem and Baron Cohen had planned and rehearsed the gag together.^[47]

Pauly Shore claimed, in 2009, that Baron Cohen's film, Brüno, was "stolen from Shore's 'mockumentary'", as the film Brüno had started production after the start of production for Adopted and also featured the main character adopting a child from a Third World nation.^[48]

In March 2012, the organizers of a tournament in Kuwait caused some embarrassment after Baron Cohen's parody of the Kazakhstan national anthem from the film Borat, was played instead of the actual anthem at a medal ceremony.^[49][50] The Kazakhstan shooting team demanded an apology from the organizers, who had mistakenly downloaded Baron Cohen's parody from the Internet.^[51]

Future projects[link]

Baron Cohen will star as Freddie Mercury of the rock band Queen in Mercury, an upcoming film about the period in the band's history from 1971 to the Live Aid concert in 1985.^[52] It was Baron Cohen himself who contacted screenwriter Peter Morgan with the idea of portraying the flamboyant lead singer.^[53] Time commented with approval on his singing ability and physical resemblance to Mercury.^[54]

Other work[link]

Baron Cohen guest-starred in the fifth season Curb Your Enthusiasm, with Dustin Hoffman as a guide to Heaven. He also provided the voice of the ring-tailed lemur king, King Julien, in DreamWorks Animation's film series, Madagascar, and appeared as Will Ferrell's arch rival the French Formula One speed demon Jean Girard in the 2006 hit Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. He also appeared alongside Johnny Depp in the 2007 film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as Signor Adolfo Pirelli, and co-starred in Martin Scorsese's 2011 adventure film Hugo.

Baron Cohen tends to avoid doing interviews out of character. However, in 2004, he did the talk show circuit appearing as himself on Late Show with David Letterman, The Opie and Anthony Show, The Howard Stern Show,^[55] and others in order to promote the upcoming season of his show on HBO. He was also interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered.^[43] He also did an interview with Rolling Stone, published in November 2006, that the magazine labelled as "his only interview as himself".^[11] He also appeared in an interview out of character with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air on 4 January 2007.^[56]

Baron Cohen has twice presented the MTV Europe Music Awards, first as Ali G on 8 November 2001, in Frankfurt, Germany, and then as Borat on 3 November 2005 in Lisbon, Portugal. Baron Cohen appeared out of character to accept an award at the British Comedy Awards in December 2006. He said at the time that Borat could not make it to the awards as "he's guest of honour at the Holocaust denial conference in Tehran",^[57] referring to the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust.

Borat director Larry Charles explains that Baron Cohen generally appears in character partly to "protect his weakness", by focusing public interest on his characters rather than himself.^[58] His other reason, Newsweek claims, is that Baron Cohen is fiercely private: "...according to the UK press, his publicists denied not only that he attended a party for the London premiere of Borat, but also that a party even occurred."^[58]

It was reported online that Baron Cohen might play Freddie Mercury in a biographical film,^[59] but his publicist later declared that Baron Cohen would not do so.^[60] However, on 16 September 2010, representatives for Cohen confirmed that he would indeed be playing the role in an as-of-yet untitled biopic about Mercury.^[61][62]

Baron Cohen shot a spread with supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio for Marie Claire magazine to promote the film Brüno.^[63]

Sports Illustrated's 6 November 2006 issue contains a column called "Skater vs. Instigator", which illustrates various amusing "parallels" between Baron Cohen and figure skater Sasha Cohen, ranging from their mutually held personal significance of the number 4,^[64] to their mutual romantic interests in redheads.

Baron Cohen was featured on Australian talk show Rove as Brüno on 28 June 2009.^{[citation needed]}

Baron Cohen was featured in the Time 100 list for 2007.^[65]

In 2010, Cohen guest-starred on The Simpsons in the episode "The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed" as Jakob, an angry Israeli tour guide.

Personal life[link]

Marriage and family[link]

Baron Cohen married Australian actress Isla Fisher on 15 March 2010.^[66] After three years of study, Fisher converted to Judaism in early 2007.^[67] She received the approval of Baron Cohen's observant Jewish parents.^[68] Baron Cohen and Fisher have two daughters: Olive, born on 19 October 2007 in Los Angeles,^[69] and Elula, born in August 2010.^[70]

Legal issues[link]

Two residents of Glod, Romania, the Gypsy village in which the opening scenes of Borat were filmed, hired attorney Edward Fagan to sue the makers of Borat for $30 million. They alleged that the intent of the film was misrepresented to them, that the poorest members of their village were made to look like "savages", and that they were underpaid, particularly when their minute salaries were compared to the millions earned by the completed film. During several segments, children were filmed with guns and other weapons and in another scene, an amputee who lost his arm was told to wear a rubber fist sex toy.^[71] The lawsuit was dismissed in New York hearing on the grounds that the allegations were too vague to stand up in court.^[72]

The government of Kazakhstan threatened Baron Cohen with legal action following the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony in Lisbon, and the authority in charge of the country's country-code top-level domain name removed the website that he had created for his character Borat (previously: http://www.borat.kz) for alleged violation of the law—specifically, registering for the domain under a false name. The New York Times, (among others), has reported that Baron Cohen, (in character as Borat), replied: "I'd like to state that I have no connection with Mr Cohen and fully support my government decision to sue this Jew".^[73] He was, however, defended by Dariga Nazarbayeva, a politician and the daughter of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who stated, "We should not be afraid of humour and we shouldn't try to control everything, I think."^[74] The deputy foreign minister of Kazakhstan later invited Baron Cohen to visit the country, stating that he could learn that "women drive cars, wine is made of grapes, and Jews are free to go to synagogues".^[75] After the worldwide success of the Borat film, the Kazakh government, including the president, altered their stance on Baron Cohen's parody, tacitly recognising the invaluable press the controversy created for their country.^[76]

Baron Cohen encountered another problem around his Borat character. Two of the three University of South Carolina students who appear in Borat sued the filmmakers, alleging that they were duped into signing release forms while drunk, and that false promises were made that the footage was for a documentary that would never be screened in the US. On 11 December 2006, a Los Angeles judge denied the pair a restraining order to remove them from the film. The lawsuit was dismissed in February 2007.^[77]

On 22 May 2009, a charity worker at a seniors' bingo game sued Baron Cohen, claiming an incident shot for Brüno at a charity bingo tournament left her disabled.^[78] However, the worker later retracted her statement, saying the "actor never struck her", but that he "beat her down emotionally to the point she's now confined to a wheelchair".^[79] The scene did not make the final cut for the film. The case was dismissed in late November 2009 on Anti-SLAPP grounds with all attorney's fees to be paid by the charity worker. The dismissal was appealed and upheld on 12 September 2011.^[80]

A lawsuit was filed on 30 April 2010 in the District of Columbia by Palestinian Christian Ayman Abu Aita of Beit Sahour, Bethlehem, West Bank, against Baron Cohen relating to his interview which was used in Brüno. Aita alleges that he has been defamed by false accusations that he is a terrorist. Aita included David Letterman in the suit based on comments made during the 7 July 2009 appearance by Baron Cohen on the Late Show with David Letterman.^[81] On 4 November 2010, the D.C. case was dismissed with Aita given 120 days to file in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York or have the case permanently dismissed.^[82] The case was re-filed in the Supreme Court of New York.^[83]

Israel and Judaism[link]

Baron Cohen first acted in theatrical productions featuring the Socialist-Zionist youth movement Habonim Dror.^[84]

He spent a year in Israel at Kibbutz Rosh HaNikra and Kibbutz Beit HaEmek as part of the Shnat Habonim Dror, as well as taking part in the programme Machon L'Madrichei Chutz La'Aretz for Jewish youth movement leaders.

According to Baron Cohen, "I wouldn't say I am a religious Jew. I am proud of my Jewish identity and there are certain things I do and customs I keep." He tries to keep kosher and attends synagogue about twice a year.^[85]

Baron Cohen frequently spoke in Hebrew while playing the anti-Semitic character Borat. He also sang the lyrics from an old kibbutz song (pretending that it was the Kazakh national anthem) in an episode of Da Ali G Show. In one of the deleted scenes of his film, after being asked by the host-pastor to lead the table in a pre-meal prayer service, Baron Cohen, in his character role of Borat, sings a lengthy hymn (not Hebrew)^[86] that has clear similarities to the Mussaf prayer service of the Jewish High Holidays.^{[original research?]} He actually repeatedly sings two Polish phrases "Satan does not speak English" (Szatan nie mówi po angielsku)^[87] and "Could you speak slowly please?"^{[original research?]}

Awards and nominations[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2010)

• 1999 – Won British Comedy Award, Best Male Comedy Newcomer for The 11 O'Clock Show (1998)^[88]
• 2000 – Nominated BAFTA TV Award, Best Entertainment Performance for The 11 O'Clock Show (1998)^[19]
• 2000 – Nominated National Television Awards, UK, Most Popular Comedy Performer for Da Ali G Show (2000)
• 2000 – Won TV Quick Award, TV Personality of the Year for Da Ali G Show (2000)
• 2001 – Won BAFTA TV Award, Best Comedy (Programme or Series) for Da Ali G Show (2000) (shared)
• 2001 – Won BAFTA TV Award, Best Comedy Performance for Da Ali G Show (2000)
• 2003 – Nominated Emmy Award, Outstanding Non-Fiction Program (Alternative) for Da Ali G Show (2003) (shared)
• 2003 – Nominated Emmy Award, Outstanding Writing for Non-Fiction Programming for Da Ali G Show (2003) (shared)
• 2004 – Nominated Golden Satellite Award, Best Performance by an Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical for Da Ali G Show (2003)
• 2005 – Nominated Emmy Award, Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series for Da Ali G Show (2003) (shared)
• 2005 – Nominated Emmy Award, Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program for Da Ali G Show (2003) (shared)
• 2006 – Won Ronnie Barker Award^[89]
• 2007 – Won MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss alongside Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

[edit] Borat awards and nominations

• 2006 – Won: Los Angeles Films Critics Association Award for Best Actor.
• 2006 – Won: San Francisco Films Critics Circle Award for Best Actor.
• 2006 – Winner: Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor.
• 2006 – Won: Deutscher Comedypreis (German comedy award) for Best International Comedy.
• 2007 – Won: Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical
• 2007 – Nominated: Golden Globe for Best Picture Comedy/Musical.
• 2007 – Nominated: London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actor of the Year.
• 2007 – Nominated: Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (shared).
• 2007 – Nominated: Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (shared).
• 2007 – Won: MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance and Nominated for Best Movie as well and Best Fight with Ken Davitian.
• 2007 – Won: The Evening Standard British Film Awards: Peter Sellers award for Best Comedy.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sacha Baron Cohen

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sacha Baron Cohen

• Sacha Baron Cohen on National Public Radio in 2007
• Sacha Baron Cohen at the Internet Movie Database
• Sacha Baron Cohen at the British Film Institute's Screenonline – biography and credits
• Sacha Baron Cohen discography at Discogs
• Sacha Baron Cohen audio interview with NPR's Robert Siegel
• And Now for the World According to Borat and Sacha Baron Cohen, Authors Den, 24 March 2007
• Sacha Baron Cohen: Killing off Borat, article at The Daily Telegraph, 21 December 2007

Larry King
King in September 2010
Born	Lawrence Harvey Zeiger (1933-11-19) November 19, 1933 (age 78) Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Television/Radio personality
Years active	1957–present
Religion	Judaism
Spouse	Freda Miller (1952-1953; annulled) Annette Kaye (1961; divorced) Alene Akins (1961-1963; divorced) Mickey Stuphin (1963-1967; divorced) Alene Akins (1967-1972; divorced) Sharon Lepore (1976-1983; divorced) Julie Alexander (1989-1992; divorced) Shawn Southwick (1997–present)

Larry King (born November 19, 1933) is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards. He began as a local Florida journalist and radio interviewer in the 1950s and 1960s and became prominent as an all-night national radio broadcaster starting in 1978. From 1985-2010, he hosted the nightly interview TV program Larry King Live on CNN.

Early life[link]

King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in Brooklyn, New York City, to an Austrian immigrant Edward Zeiger, a restaurant owner and defense plant worker, and his wife Jennie Gitlitz, a garment worker, who emigrated from Belarus.^[1][2][3] King grew up in a religiously observant Jewish home,^[4] but in adulthood became an agnostic.^[5]

King's father died at 44 of heart disease,^[6] and his mother had to go on welfare to support her two sons. His father's death greatly affected King, and he lost interest in school. After graduating from high school, he worked to help support his mother. From an early age, however, he had wanted to go into radio.^[7] King is a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Career[link]

Miami radio and television[link]

A CBS staff announcer, whom King met by chance, told him to go to Florida, a growing media market where openings still existed for inexperienced broadcasters. King rode a train to Miami. After initial setbacks, King persisted and got his first job in radio. The manager of a small station, WAHR (now WMBM) in Miami Beach, hired him to clean up and perform miscellaneous tasks.^[8] When one of their announcers quit, they put King on the air. His first broadcast was on May 1, 1957, when he worked as the disc jockey from 9 a.m. to noon.^[9] He also did two afternoon newscasts and a sportscast. He was paid $55 a week. He acquired the name Larry King when the general manager Marshall Simmonds said that Zeiger was too ethnic and difficult to remember, so Larry chose the surname King, which he got from an ad in The Miami Herald for King's Wholesale Liquor, minutes before air.^[10] He started interviewing on a midmorning show for WIOD, at Pumpernik's Restaurant in Miami Beach.^[11] He would interview anyone who walked in. His first interview was with a waiter at the restaurant.^[12] Two days later, singer Bobby Darin, in Miami for a concert later that day, walked into Pumpernik's as a result of coming across King's show on his radio; Darin became King's first celebrity interview guest.^[13]

His Miami radio show launched him to local stardom. A few years later, in May 1960, he hosted Miami Undercover, airing Sunday nights at 11:30 p.m. on WPST-TV Channel 10 (now WPLG).^[14] On the show, he moderated debates on important issues of the time. King credits his success on local TV to the assistance of another showbiz legend, comedian Jackie Gleason, whose national TV variety show was being filmed in Miami Beach during this period. "That show really took off because Gleason came to Miami," King said in a 1996 interview he gave when inducted into the Broadcasters' Hall of Fame. "He did that show and stayed all night with me. We stayed till five in the morning. He didn't like the set, so we broke into the general manager's office and changed the set. Gleason changed the set, he changed the lighting, and he became like a mentor of mine."^[15] Jackie Gleason was instrumental in getting Larry a hard-to-get on air interview with Frank Sinatra during this time.

During this period, WIOD gave King further exposure as a color commentator for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League, during their 1970 season and most of their 1971 season.^[16] However, he was dismissed by both WIOD and television station WTVJ as a late-night radio host and sports commentator as of December 20, 1971, when he was arrested after being accused of grand larceny by a former business partner.^[17] Other staffers covered the Dolphins' games into their 24–3 loss to Dallas in Super Bowl VI. King also lost his weekly column at the Miami Beach Sun newspaper. The charges were dropped on March 10, 1972, and King spent the next several years in reviving his career, including a stint as the color announcer in Louisiana for the Shreveport Steamer of the World Football League in 1974–75 on KWKH. Eventually, King was rehired by WIOD in Miami. For several years during the 1970s in South Florida, he hosted a sports talk-show called "Sports-a-la-King" that featured guests and callers.

National radio[link]

Interviewing Vladimir Putin

In 1978, he went national, inheriting the nightly talk show slot on the Mutual Broadcasting System, broadcast coast-to-coast, that had been "Long John" Nebel's until his death, and had been pioneered by Herb Jepko.^[18] One reason King got the Mutual job is that he had once been an announcer at WGMA-AM in Hollywood, Florida, which was then owned by C. Edward Little. Little went on to become president of Mutual and was the one who hired King when Nebel died. King's Mutual show developed a devoted audience.^{[citation needed]}

It was broadcast live Monday through Friday from midnight to 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time. King would interview a guest for the first 90 minutes, with callers asking questions that continued the interview for another 90 minutes. At 3 a.m., he would allow callers to discuss any topic they pleased with him, until the end of the program, when he expressed his own political opinions. That segment was called "Open Phone America". Some of the regular callers used the pseudonyms "The Portland Laugher", "The Miami Derelict", "The Todd Cruz Caller", "The Scandal Scooper", "Mr. Radio" and "The Water Is Warm Caller". "Mr. Radio" made over 200 calls to King during Open Phone America. The show was successful, starting with relatively few affiliates and eventually growing to more than 500. It ran until 1994.^{[citation needed]}

For its final year, the show was moved to afternoons, but, because most talk radio stations at the time had an established policy of local origination in the time-slot (3 to 6 p.m. Eastern Time) that Mutual offered the show, a very low percentage of King's overnight affiliates agreed to carry his daytime show and it was unable to generate the same audience size.^{[citation needed]} The afternoon show was eventually given to David Brenner and radio affiliates were given the option of carrying the audio of King's new CNN evening television program. The Westwood One radio simulcast of the CNN show continued until December 31, 2009.

CNN[link]

He started his Larry King Live CNN show in June 1985, hosting a broad range of guests from controversial figures of UFO conspiracy theories and alleged psychics,^[19] to prominent politicians and leading figures in the entertainment industry, often doing their first or only interview on breaking news stories on his show.

King during a recording of his Larry King Live program at the Pentagon in Arlington, VA in 2006

Unlike many interviewers, King has a direct, non-confrontational approach. His reputation for asking easy, open-ended questions has made him attractive to important figures who want to state their position while avoiding being challenged on contentious topics.^[20] His interview style is characteristically frank, but with occasional bursts of irreverence and humor. His approach attracts some guests who would not otherwise appear. King, who is known for his general lack of pre-interview preparation, once bragged that he never read the books of authors before they made their appearances on his program.

In a show dedicated to the surviving Beatles, King asked George Harrison's widow about the song "Something", which was written about George Harrison's first wife. He seemed surprised when she did not know very much about the song.

Throughout his career King has interviewed many of the leading figures of his time. CNN claimed during his final episode that he had performed 60,000 interviews in his career.

King also wrote a regular newspaper column in USA Today for almost 20 years, from shortly after that newspaper's origin in 1982 until September 2001.^[21] The column consisted of short "plugs, superlatives and dropped names" but was dropped when the newspaper redesigned its "Life" section.^[22] The column was resurrected in blog form in November 2008^[23] and on Twitter in April 2009.^[24]

Departure[link]

On June 29, 2010, King announced that after 25 years, he would be stepping down from his nightly job hosting Larry King Live. However, he stated that he would remain with CNN to host occasional specials.^[25] The announcement came in the wake of speculation that CNN had approached Piers Morgan, the British television personality and journalist, as King's primetime replacement,^[26] which was confirmed in September.^[27][28]

The final edition of Larry King Live aired on December 16, 2010.^[29] The show concluded with his last thoughts and a thank you to his audience for watching and supporting him over the years.^[30]

On February 17, 2012 CNN announced that he would no longer host specials.^[31]

Other ventures[link]

King was the moderator of the 6th KAZENERGY Eurasian Forum in Astana, Kazakhstan, an annual forum for Kazakhstan's energy sector occurring in October 2011.^[32][33][34]

Charitable works[link]

As a result of heart attacks, he established the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, an organization to which David Letterman, through his American Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming, has also contributed. King gave $1 million to George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs for scholarships to students from disadvantaged backgrounds.^{[citation needed]} King serves as a member of the Board of Directors on the Police Athletic League of New York City, a nonprofit youth development agency serving inner-city children and teenagers.^{[citation needed]}

On September 3, 2005, following Hurricane Katrina, King aired "How You Can Help", a three-hour special designed to provide a forum and information clearinghouse for viewers to understand and join nationwide and global relief efforts. On January 18, 2010, in the wake the 2010 Haiti earthquake, King aired "Haiti: How You Can Help", a special two-hour edition designed to show viewers how to take action and be a part of the global outreach. Following the Deepwater Horizon explosion, King aired "Disaster in the Gulf: How You Can Help", a special two-hour edition designed to show viewers how to take action in the clean-up efforts on the Gulf Coast.

On August 30, 2010, King served as the host of Chabad's 30th annual "To Life" telethon, in Los Angeles.

Controversial positions[link]

On September 10, 1990, while on The Joan Rivers Show, Rivers asked King which contestant in the Miss America pageant was "the ugliest". King responded, "Miss Pennsylvania. She was one of the 10 finalists and she did a great ventriloquist bit [...] The dummy was prettier."^[35] King was a judge for the September 8, 1990 pageant. King later sent Miss Pennsylvania, Marla Wynne, a dozen long-stemmed roses and a telegram apologizing for saying she was the ugliest contestant in the pageant that year.^[36]

In 1997, King was one of 34 celebrities to sign an open letter to then-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, published as a newspaper advertisement in the International Herald Tribune, which protested the treatment of Scientologists in Germany, comparing it to the Nazis' oppression of Jews in the 1930s.^[37] Other signatories included Dustin Hoffman and Goldie Hawn.^[37]

Personal life[link]

King has been married eight times, to seven different women.^[38] He married high-school sweetheart Freda Miller in 1951 at age 18.^[39] The union ended the following year at the behest of their parents, who reportedly had the marriage annulled.^[39] King was later briefly married to Annette Kaye^[39] who gave birth to his son, Larry Jr., in November 1961. King did not meet Larry Jr. until the son was in his thirties.^[40] Larry Jr. and his wife, Shannon, have three children.^[38]

In 1961, King married his third wife, Alene Akins, a Playboy bunny at one of the magazine's eponymous nightclubs. The couple had son Andy in 1962, and divorced the following year.^[39] In 1963, King married his fourth wife, Mary Francis "Mickey" Stuphin, who divorced King.^[39] He remarried Akins, with whom he had a second child, Chaia, in 1969.^[39] The couple divorced a second time in 1972.^[39] In 1997, Dove Books published a book written by King and Chaia, Daddy Day, Daughter Day. Aimed at young children, it tells each of their accounts of his divorce from Akins.

On September 25, 1976, King married his fifth wife, math teacher and production assistant Sharon Lepore. The couple divorced in 1983.^[41]

King met businesswoman Julie Alexander in summer 1989, and proposed to her on the couple's first date, on August 1, 1989.^[42] Alexander became King's sixth wife on October 7, 1989, when the two were married in Washington, D.C.^[43] The couple lived in different cities, however, with Alexander in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and King in Washington, D.C., where he worked. The couple separated in 1990 and divorced in 1992.^[43] He became engaged to actress Deanna Lund in 1995, after five weeks of dating, but they never married.^[44]

He married his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick, born in 1959^[45][46] as Shawn Oro Engemann,^[45] a former singer and TV host,^[47] in King's Los Angeles, California, hospital room three days before King underwent heart surgery to clear a clogged blood vessel.^[46] The couple have two children: Chance, born March 1999,^{[citation needed]} and Cannon, born May 2000.^{[citation needed]} He is stepfather to Danny Southwick.^{[citation needed]} On King and Southwick's 10th anniversary in September 2007, Southwick boasted she was "the only [wife] to have lasted into the two digits".^[47] On April 14, 2010, both Larry and Shawn King filed for divorce.^[46][48] but have since stopped the proceedings, claiming "We love our children, we love each other, we love being a family. That is all that matters to us".^[49]

On February 24, 1987, King suffered a major heart attack and then had quintuple-bypass surgery.^{[citation needed]} Since then, King has written two books about living with heart disease. Mr. King, You're Having a Heart Attack: How a Heart Attack and Bypass Surgery Changed My Life (1989, ISBN 0-440-50039-7) was written with New York's Newsday science editor B. D. Colen. Taking On Heart Disease: Famous Personalities Recall How They Triumphed over the Nation's #1 Killer and How You Can, Too (2004, ISBN 1-57954-820-2) features the experience of various celebrities with cardiovascular disease including Peggy Fleming and Regis Philbin.

In July 2009, King appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, where he told host O'Brien about his wishes to be cryonically preserved upon death,^[50] as he had revealed in his book My Remarkable Journey.^[51] In December 2011, preceding a CNN Special on the topic, the Kings had a special dinner with friends Conan O'Brien, Tyra Banks, Shaquille O'Neal, Seth MacFarlane, Jack Dorsey, Quincy Jones and Russell Brand where his intent to do so was reiterated, among other topics that were discussed.^[52]

On February 12, 2010, Larry King revealed that he had undergone surgery five weeks earlier to place stents in his coronary artery to remove plaque from his heart. During the segment on Larry King Live which discussed Bill Clinton's similar procedure, King said he was "feeling great" and had been in hospital for just one day.^{[citation needed]}

Awards[link]

King has received many broadcasting awards. He won the Peabody Award for Excellence in broadcasting for both his radio (1982) and television (1992) shows. He has also won 10 CableACE awards for Best Interviewer and for Best Talk Show Series.

In 1989, King was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame,^{[citation needed]} and in 1996 to the Broadcasters' Hall of Fame.^[7] In 2002, the industry magazine Talkers named King both the fourth-greatest radio talk show host of all time and the top television talk show host of all time.^[53]

in June 1998, King received an Honorary Degree from Brooklyn College, City University of New York, for his life achievements.

King was given the Golden Mike Award for Lifetime Achievement in January 2009, by the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California.

King is an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Beverly Hills. He is also a recipient of the President's Award honoring his impact on media from the Los Angeles Press Club in 2006.

King is the first recipient of the Arizona State University Hugh Downs Award for Communication Excellence,^[54] presented April 11, 2007, via satellite by Downs himself.^[55] Downs sported red suspenders for the event and turned the tables on King by asking "very tough questions" about King's best, worst and most influential interviews during King's 50 years in broadcasting.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Larry King on Wikipedia's sister projects:
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	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
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• CNN profile
• Larry King Cardiac Foundation - Foundation to fund treatments cardiac patients with little or no insurance
• Clark lawsuit
• Larry King at the Internet Movie Database
• Larry King Live - Transcripts of all interviews since 2000
• Larry King interviewed by Gianluca D'Agostino
• Larry King Archive of American Television video interview

Martin Scorsese
Scorsese at the Tribeca Film Festival, 2007
Born	Martin Charles Scorsese (1942-11-17) November 17, 1942 (age 69) Queens, New York, USA
Nationality	American
Education	Cardinal Hayes High School
Alma mater	New York University (B.A.) NYU Tisch School of the Arts (M.F.A.)
Occupation	Film director, producer, actor, screenwriter
Years active	1963–present
Influenced by	in alphabetical order: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger,[1] Satyajit Ray[2]
Spouse	Laraine Marie Brennan (1965–ca 71; divorced) Julia Cameron (1976–77; divorced) Isabella Rossellini (1979–82; divorced) Barbara De Fina (1985–91; divorced) Helen Morris (1999–present)
Parents	Charles Scorsese, Catherine Scorsese

Martin Charles Scorsese^[3] ( /skɔrˈsɛsɛ/;^[4] born November 17, 1942)^[5][6][7][8] is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation. He is a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema, and has won Academy Award, Palme d'Or, Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and DGA Awards.

Scorsese's body of work addresses such themes as Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption,^[9] machismo, modern crime, and violence. Scorsese is hailed as one of the most significant and influential filmmakers of all time, directing landmark films such as Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), and Goodfellas (1990) – all of which he collaborated on with actor and close friend Robert De Niro.^[10] He won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed (2006), having been nominated a previous five times.

Early life[link]

From left: Salvo Cuccia, Martin Scorsese and Vittorio De Seta at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival.

Martin Scorsese grew up in New York City. His father, Charles Scorsese (1913–1993), and mother, Catherine Scorsese (born Cappa; 1912–1997), both worked in New York's Garment District. His father was a clothes presser and an actor, and his mother was a seamstress and an actress.^[11] His father's parents emigrated from Polizzi Generosa, in the province of Palermo, Sicily, and his mother was also of Italian descent. Scorsese was raised in a devoutly Catholic environment.^[12] As a boy, he had asthma and couldn't play sports or do any activities with other kids and so his parents and his older brother would often take him to movie theaters; it was at this stage in his life that he developed passion for cinema. Enamored of historical epics in his adolescence, at least two films of the genre, Land of the Pharaohs and El Cid, appear to have had a deep and lasting impact on his cinematic psyche. Scorsese also developed an admiration for neorealist cinema at this time. He recounted its influence in a documentary on Italian neorealism, and commented on how Bicycle Thieves alongside Paisà, Rome, Open City inspired him and how this influenced his view or portrayal of his Sicilian genes. In his documentary, Il Mio Viaggio in Italia, Scorsese noted that the Sicilian episode of Roberto Rossellini's Paisà which he first saw on television alongside his relatives, who were themselves Sicilian immigrants, made a significant impact on his life.^[2] He acknowledges owing a great debt to the French New Wave and has stated that "the French New Wave has influenced all filmmakers who have worked since, whether they saw the films or not."^[13] He has also cited filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini as a major influence on his career.^{[2][14][15][16][17]} His initial desire to become a priest^[18] while attending Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx gave way to cinema, and, consequently, Scorsese enrolled in NYU's University College of Arts and Science, (now known as the College of Arts and Science), where he earned a B.A. in English in 1964. He went on to earn his M.F.A. from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1966, a year after the school was founded.^[19]

Family[link]

Scorsese has been married five times. His first wife was Laraine Marie Brennan; they have a daughter, Catherine. He married the writer Julia Cameron in 1976; they have a daughter, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, who is an actress and appeared in The Age of Innocence, but the marriage lasted only a year. The divorce was acrimonious and served as the basis of Cameron's first feature, the dark comedy, God's Will,^[20] which also starred their daughter, Domenica.^[21][22] Their daughter also had a small role in Cape Fear using the name Domenica Scorsese and has continued to act, write, direct and produce.^[23]

He was married to actress Isabella Rossellini from 1979 to their divorce in 1983. He then married producer Barbara De Fina in 1985; their marriage ended in divorce as well, in 1991. He has been married to Helen Morris since 1999; they have a daughter, Francesca, who appeared in The Departed and The Aviator. He is based in New York City.

Scorsese has commented, "I'm a lapsed Catholic. But I am Roman Catholic, there's no way out of it."^[24]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Scorsese attended New York University's film school (B.A., English, 1964; M.F.A., film, 1966)^[25] making the short films What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963) and It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964). His most famous short of the period is the darkly comic The Big Shave (1967), which features Peter Bernuth. The film is an indictment of America's involvement in Vietnam, suggested by its alternative title Viet '67.^[26] Scorsese has mentioned on several occasions that he was greatly inspired in his early days at New York University by his Armenian-American film professor Haig P. Manoogian.

In 1967, Scorsese made his first feature-length film, the black and white I Call First, which was later retitled Who's That Knocking at My Door with his fellow students actor Harvey Keitel and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, both of whom were to become long-term collaborators. This film was intended to be the first of Scorsese's semi-autobiographical 'J.R. Trilogy', which also would have included his later film, Mean Streets.

1970s[link]

From there he became friends with the influential "movie brats" of the 1970s: Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg. It was Brian De Palma who introduced Scorsese to Robert De Niro. During this period he worked as the assistant director and one of the editors on the documentary Woodstock and met actor-director John Cassavetes, who would also go on to become a close friend and mentor.^[27] Scorsese is also credited as one of the cameramen who photographed the infamous late-1969 Altamont rock festival for the 1970 Rolling Stones film "Gimme Shelter".

[edit] Mean Streets

In 1972 Scorsese made the Depression-era exploiter Boxcar Bertha for B-movie producer Roger Corman, who also helped directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, and John Sayles launch their careers. It was Corman who taught Scorsese that entertaining films could be shot with next to no money or time, preparing the young director well for the challenges to come with Mean Streets. Following the film's release, Cassavetes encouraged Scorsese to make the films that he wanted to make, rather than someone else's projects.

Championed by influential movie critic Pauline Kael, Mean Streets was a breakthrough for Scorsese, De Niro, and Keitel. By now the signature Scorsese style was in place: macho posturing, bloody violence, Catholic guilt and redemption, gritty New York locale (though the majority of Mean Streets was actually shot in Los Angeles), rapid-fire editing, and a rock soundtrack. Although the film was innovative, its wired atmosphere, edgy documentary style, and gritty street-level direction owed a debt to directors Cassavetes, Samuel Fuller, and early Jean-Luc Godard.^[28] (Indeed the film was completed with much encouragement from Cassavetes, who felt Boxcar Bertha was undeserving of the young director's prodigious talent.)^[27]

In 1974, actress Ellen Burstyn chose Scorsese to direct her in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress. Although well regarded, the film remains an anomaly in the director's early career, as it focuses on a central female character. Returning to Little Italy to explore his ethnic roots, Scorsese next came up with Italianamerican, a documentary featuring his parents, Charles and Catherine Scorsese.

[edit] Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver followed in 1976 – Scorsese's dark, urban nightmare of one lonely man's slow, deliberate descent into insanity.

The film established Scorsese as an accomplished filmmaker and also brought attention to cinematographer Michael Chapman, whose style tends towards high contrasts, strong colors and complex camera movements. The film starred Robert De Niro as the troubled and psychotic Travis Bickle. The film co-starred Jodie Foster in a highly controversial role as an underage prostitute, and Harvey Keitel as her pimp, Matthew, called "Sport."

Taxi Driver also marked the start of a series of collaborations between Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader, whose influences included the diary of would-be assassin Arthur Bremer and Pickpocket, a film by the French director Robert Bresson. Writer/director Schrader often returns to Bresson's work in films such as American Gigolo, Light Sleeper, and Scorsese's later Bringing Out the Dead.^[29]

Already controversial upon its release, Taxi Driver hit the headlines again five years later, when John Hinckley, Jr. made an assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan. He subsequently blamed his act on his obsession with Jodie Foster's Taxi Driver character (in the film, De Niro's character, Travis Bickle, makes an assassination attempt on a senator).^[30]

Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival,^[31] also receiving four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, although all were unsuccessful.

Scorsese was subsequently offered the role of Charles Manson in the movie Helter Skelter and a part in Sam Fuller's war movie The Big Red One, but he turned both down. However he did accept the role of a gangster in exploitation movie Cannonball directed by Paul Bartel. In this period there were also several directorial projects that never got off the ground including Haunted Summer, about Mary Shelley and a film with Marlon Brando about the Indian massacre at Wounded Knee.

[edit] New York, New York and The Last Waltz

The critical success of Taxi Driver encouraged Scorsese to move ahead with his first big-budget project: the highly stylized musical New York, New York. This tribute to Scorsese's home town and the classic Hollywood musical was a box-office failure.

New York, New York was the director's third collaboration with Robert De Niro, co-starring with Liza Minnelli (a tribute and allusion to her father, legendary musical director Vincente Minnelli). The film is best remembered today for the title theme song, which was popularized by Frank Sinatra. Although possessing Scorsese's usual visual panache and stylistic bravura, many critics felt its enclosed studio-bound atmosphere left it leaden in comparison to his earlier work.

Despite its weak reception, the film is regarded by some to be among the director's finest achievements. Richard Brody in the New Yorker wrote: "For Scorsese, a lifelong cinephile, the essence of New York could be found in its depiction in classic Hollywood movies. Remarkably, his backward-looking tribute to the golden age of musicals and noirish romantic melodramas turned out to be one of his most freewheeling and personal films." ^[32] Jean-Luc Godard is another admirer of the film.^[33]

The disappointing reception that New York, New York received drove Scorsese into depression. By this stage the director had also developed a serious cocaine addiction. However, he did find the creative drive to make the highly regarded The Last Waltz, documenting the final concert by The Band. It was held at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, and featured one of the most extensive lineups of prominent guest performers at a single concert, including Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Neil Diamond, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield, Ronnie Wood and Van Morrison. However, Scorsese's commitments to other projects delayed the release of the film until 1978.

Another Scorsese-directed documentary entitled American Boy also appeared in 1978, focusing on Steven Prince, the cocky gun salesman who appeared in Taxi Driver. A period of wild partying followed, damaging the director's already fragile health.

Scorsese also helped provide footage for the documentary Elvis on Tour.

1980s[link]

[edit] Raging Bull

By several accounts (Scorsese's included), Robert De Niro practically saved Scorsese's life when he persuaded Scorsese to kick his cocaine addiction to make his highly regarded film, Raging Bull. Convinced that he would never make another movie, he poured his energies into making this violent biopic of middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta, calling it a Kamikaze method of film-making.^[34] The film is widely viewed as a masterpiece and was voted the greatest film of the 1980s by Britain's Sight & Sound magazine.^[35][36] It received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Robert De Niro, and Scorsese's first for Best Director. De Niro won, as did Thelma Schoonmaker for editing, but Best Director went to Robert Redford for Ordinary People.

Raging Bull, filmed in high contrast black and white, is where Scorsese's style reached its zenith: Taxi Driver and New York, New York had used elements of expressionism to replicate psychological points of view, but here the style was taken to new extremes, employing extensive slow-motion, complex tracking shots, and extravagant distortion of perspective (for example, the size of boxing rings would change from fight to fight).^[37] Thematically too, the concerns carried on from Mean Streets and Taxi Driver: insecure males, violence, guilt, and redemption.

Although the screenplay for Raging Bull was credited to Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin (who earlier co-wrote Mean Streets), the finished script differed extensively from Schrader's original draft. It was re-written several times by various writers including Jay Cocks (who went on to co-script later Scorsese films The Age of Innocence and Gangs of New York). The final draft was largely written by Scorsese and Robert De Niro.^[38]

The American Film Institute chose Raging Bull as the #1 American sports film on their list of the top 10 sports films.

[edit] The King of Comedy

Scorsese's next project was his fifth collaboration with Robert De Niro, The King of Comedy (1983). A satire on the world of media and celebrity, it was an obvious departure from the more emotionally committed films he had become associated with. Visually, it was far less kinetic than the style Scorsese had developed up until this point, often using a static camera and long takes.^[39] The expressionism of his recent work here gave way to moments of almost total surrealism. It still bore many of Scorsese's trademarks, however, such as its focus on a troubled loner who ironically becomes famous through a criminal act (murder and kidnapping, respectively).^[40]

The King of Comedy failed at the box office, but has become increasingly well regarded by critics in the years since its release. German director Wim Wenders numbered it among his fifteen favourite films.^[41] Also, Scorsese apparently believes that this is the best performance De Niro ever gave for him.^{[citation needed]}

Next Scorsese made a brief cameo appearance in the movie Anna Pavlova (also known as A Woman for All Time), originally intended to be directed by one of his heroes, Michael Powell. This led to a more significant role in Bertrand Tavernier's jazz movie Round Midnight.

In 1983 Scorsese began work on a long-cherished personal project, The Last Temptation of Christ, based on the 1951 (English translation 1960) novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, who was introduced to the director by actress Barbara Hershey when they were both attending New York University in the late 1960s. The movie was slated to shoot under the Paramount Pictures banner, but shortly before principal photography was to commence, Paramount pulled the plug on the project, citing pressure from religious groups. In this aborted 1983 version, Aidan Quinn was cast as Jesus, and Sting was cast as Pontius Pilate. (In the 1988 version, these roles were played respectively by Willem Dafoe and David Bowie.)

[edit] After Hours

After the collapse of this project Scorsese again saw his career at a critical point, as he described in the documentary Filming for Your Life: Making 'After Hours' (2004). He saw that in the increasingly commercial world of 1980s Hollywood, the highly stylized and personal 1970s films he and others had built their careers on would not continue to enjoy the same status. Scorsese decided then on an almost totally new approach to his work. With After Hours (1985) he made an aesthetic shift back to a pared-down, almost "underground" film-making style – his way of staying viable. Filmed on an extremely low budget, on location, and at night in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, the film is a black comedy about one increasingly misfortunate night for a mild New York word processor (Griffin Dunne) and featured cameos by such disparate actors as Teri Garr and Cheech and Chong. A bit of a stylistic anomaly for Scorsese, After Hours fits in well with popular low-budget "cult" films of the 1980s, e.g. Jonathan Demme's Something Wild and Alex Cox's Repo Man.

[edit] The Color of Money

Along with the 1987 Michael Jackson music video "Bad", in 1986 Scorsese made The Color of Money, a sequel to the much admired Robert Rossen film The Hustler (1961) with Paul Newman. Although typically visually assured, The Color of Money was the director's first foray into mainstream commercial film-making. It won actor Paul Newman a belated Oscar and gave Scorsese the clout to finally secure backing for a project that had been a long time goal for him: The Last Temptation of Christ. He also made a brief venture into television, directing an episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories.

[edit] The Last Temptation of Christ

After his mid-1980s flirtation with commercial Hollywood, Scorsese made a major return to personal film-making with the Paul Schrader-scripted The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. Based on Nikos Kazantzakis's controversial 1960 book, it retold the life of Christ in human rather than divine terms. Even prior to its release the film caused a massive furore, worldwide protests against its blasphemy effectively turning a low budget independent movie into a media sensation.^[42] Most controversy centered on the final passages of the film which depicted Christ marrying and raising a family with Mary Magdalene in a Satan-induced hallucination while on the cross.

Looking past the controversy, The Last Temptation of Christ gained critical acclaim and remains an important work in Scorsese's canon: an explicit attempt to wrestle with the spirituality which had under-pinned his films up until that point. The director went on to receive his second nomination for a Best Director Academy Award (again unsuccessfully, this time losing to Barry Levinson for Rain Man).

Along with directors Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola, in 1989 Scorsese provided one of three segments in the portmanteau film New York Stories, called "Life Lessons".

1990s[link]

[edit] Goodfellas

After a decade of mostly mixed results, Gangster epic Goodfellas (1990) was a return to form for Scorsese and his most confident and fully realized film since Raging Bull. De Niro and Joe Pesci in Goodfellas offered a virtuoso display of the director's bravura cinematic technique and re-established, enhanced, and consolidated his reputation. After the film was released Roger Ebert, a friend and supporter of Scorsese, named Goodfellas "the best mob movie ever" and is ranked #1 on Roger's movie list for 1990, along with Gene Siskel and Peter Travers, the film is widely considered one of the director's greatest achievements.^[43][44][45]

However, Goodfellas also signified an important shift in tone in the director's work, inaugurating an era in his career which was technically accomplished but some have argued emotionally detached.^[46] Despite this, many view Goodfellas as a Scorsese archetype – the apogee of his cinematic technique.

The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, Scorsese earned his third Best Director nomination for Goodfellas but again lost to a first-time director, Kevin Costner (Dances With Wolves). Joe Pesci earned the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Goodfellas. Scorsese and the film won over a numerous of different awards, including five BAFTA Awards, a Silver Lion and more.

After the film, Goodfellas was acknowledged as the second best in the gangster film genre (after The Godfather). The American Film Institute put Goodfellas at #94 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list and on the 2007 updated version they moved Goodfellas up to #92 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list (10th Anniversary Edition) and they put Goodfellas at #2 on their list of the top 10 Gangster films.

In 1990, he acted in a cameo role as Vincent van Gogh in the film Dreams by legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.

[edit] Cape Fear

1991 brought Cape Fear, a remake of a cult 1962 movie of the same name, and the director's seventh collaboration with De Niro. Another foray into the mainstream, the film was a stylized thriller taking its cues heavily from Alfred Hitchcock and Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955). Cape Fear received a mixed critical reception and was lambasted in many quarters for its scenes depicting misogynistic violence. However, the lurid subject matter did give Scorsese a chance to experiment with a dazzling array of visual tricks and effects. The film garnered two Oscar nominations. Earning eighty million dollars domestically, it would stand as Scorsese's most commercially successful release until The Aviator (2004), and then The Departed (2006). The film also marked the first time Scorsese used wide-screen Panavision with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

[edit] The Age of Innocence

The opulent and handsomely mounted The Age of Innocence (1993) was on the surface a huge departure for Scorsese, a period adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel about the constrictive high society of late-19th Century New York. It was highly lauded by critics upon original release, but was a box office bomb, making an overall loss. As noted in Scorsese on Scorsese by editor/interviewer Ian Christie, the news that Scorsese wanted to make a film about a 19th Century failed romance raised many eyebrows among the film fraternity all the more when Scorsese made it clear that it was a personal project and not a studio for-hire job.

Scorsese was interested in doing a "romantic piece". His friend, Jay Cocks gave him the Wharton novel in 1980, suggesting that this should be the romantic piece Scorsese should film as Cocks felt it best represented his sensibility. In Scorsese on Scorsese he noted that:

"Although the film deals with New York aristocracy and a period of New York history that has been neglected, and although it deals with code and ritual, and with love that's not unrequited but unconsummated – which pretty much covers all the themes I usually deal with – when I read the book, I didn't say, 'Oh good, all those themes are here.'"

Scorsese, who was strongly drawn to the characters and the story of Wharton's text, wanted his film to be as rich an emotional experience as the book was to him rather than the traditional academic adaptations of literary works. To this aim, Scorsese sought influence from diverse period films which made an emotional impact on him. In Scorsese on Scorsese, he documents influences from films such as Luchino Visconti's Senso and his Il Gattopardo as well as Orson Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons and also Roberto Rossellini's La Prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV. Although The Age of Innocence was ultimately different than these films in terms of narrative, story and thematic concern, the presence of a lost society, of lost values as well as detailed re-creations of social customs and rituals continues the tradition of these films.

Recently, it has started to come back into the public eye, especially in countries such as the UK and France, but still is largely neglected in North America. The film earned five Academy Award nominations (including for Scorsese for Best Adapted Screenplay), winning the Costume Design Oscar. It also made a significant impact on directors such as Chinese auteur Tian Zhuangzhuang,^[47] and British filmmaker Terence Davies,^[48] both of whom ranked it among their ten favorite films.

This was his first collaboration with the Academy Award winning actor, Daniel Day-Lewis, with whom he would work again in Gangs of New York.

[edit] Casino

1995's expansive Casino, like The Age of Innocence before it, focused on a tightly wound male whose well-ordered life is disrupted by the arrival of unpredictable forces. The fact that it was a violent gangster film made it more palatable to fans of the director who perhaps were baffled by the apparent departure of the earlier film. Critically, however, Casino received mixed notices. In large part this was due to its huge stylistic similarities to his earlier Goodfellas, and its excessive violence that garnered it a reputation as possibly the most violent American gangster film ever made.^{[citation needed]} Indeed many of the tropes and tricks of the earlier film resurfaced more or less intact, most obviously the casting of both Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, Pesci once again being an unbridled psychopath. Sharon Stone was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance.

During the filming Scorsese played a background part as a gambler at one of the tables. It is quite often rumored that a real game of poker was being held at the time between extras and that a pot of $2000 was at stake.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies

Scorsese still found time for a four hour documentary in 1995 offering a thorough trek through American cinema. It covered the silent era to 1969, a year after which Scorsese began his feature career, stating "I wouldn't feel right commenting on myself or my contemporaries."

[edit] Kundun

If The Age of Innocence alienated and confused some fans, then Kundun (1997) went several steps further, offering an account of the early life of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, the People's Liberation Army's entering of Tibet, and the Dalai Lama's subsequent exile to India. Not least a departure in subject matter, Kundun also saw Scorsese employing a fresh narrative and visual approach. Traditional dramatic devices were substituted for a trance-like meditation achieved through an elaborate tableau of colourful visual images.^[49]

The film was a source of turmoil for its distributor, Disney, which was planning significant expansion into the Chinese market at the time. Initially defiant in the face of pressure from Chinese officials, Disney has since distanced itself from the project, hurting Kundun's commercial profile.

In the short term, the sheer eclecticism in evidence enhanced the director's reputation. In the long term however, it generally appears Kundun has been sidelined in most critical appraisals of the director, mostly noted as a stylistic and thematic detour. Kundun was the director's second attempt to profile the life of a great religious leader, following The Last Temptation of Christ.

[edit] Bringing Out the Dead

Bringing Out the Dead (1999) was a return to familiar territory, with the director and writer Paul Schrader constructing a pitch-black comic take on their own earlier Taxi Driver.^[50] Like previous Scorsese-Schrader collaborations, its final scenes of spiritual redemption explicitly recalled the films of Robert Bresson.^[51] (It's also worth noting that the film's incident-filled nocturnal setting is reminiscent of After Hours.) It received generally positive reviews,^[52] although not the universal critical acclaim of some of his other films. It stars Nicolas Cage, Ving Rhames, John Goodman, Tom Sizemore, and Patricia Arquette.

2000s[link]

[edit] Gangs of New York

Scorsese at the Gangs of New York screening at the Cannes Film Festival with Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz.

In 1999 Scorsese also produced a documentary on Italian filmmakers entitled Il Mio Viaggio in Italia, also known as My Voyage to Italy. The documentary foreshadowed the director's next project, the epic Gangs of New York (2002), influenced by (amongst many others) major Italian directors such as Luchino Visconti and filmed in its entirety at Rome's famous Cinecittà film studios.

With a production budget said to be in excess of $100 million, Gangs of New York was Scorsese's biggest and arguably most mainstream venture to date. Like The Age of Innocence, it was set in 19th-century New York, although focusing on the other end of the social scale (and like that film, also starring Daniel Day-Lewis). The film also marked the first collaboration between Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who since then has become a fixture in later Scorsese films.

The production was highly troubled with many rumors referring to the director's conflict with Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein.^[53] Despite denials of artistic compromise, Gangs of New York revealed itself to be the director's most conventional film: standard film tropes which the director had traditionally avoided, such as characters existing purely for exposition purposes and explanatory flashbacks, here surfaced in abundance.^[54][55][56] The original score composed by regular Scorsese collaborator Elmer Bernstein was rejected at a late stage for a score by Howard Shore and mainstream rock artists U2 and Peter Gabriel.^[57] The final cut of the movie ran to 168 minutes, while the director's original cut was over 180 minutes in length.^[54] The film still received generally positive reviews with the review tallying website Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 75% of the reviews they tallied for the film were positive and summarizing the critics by saying "Though flawed, the sprawling, messy Gangs of New York is redeemed by impressive production design and Day-Lewis's electrifying performance."^[58]

Nonetheless, the themes central to the film were consistent with the director's established concerns: New York, violence as culturally endemic, and sub-cultural divisions down ethnic lines.

Originally filmed for a release in the winter of 2001 (to qualify for Academy Award nominations), Scorsese delayed the final production of the film until after the beginning of 2002; the studio consequently delayed the film for nearly a year until its release in the Oscar season of late 2002.^[59]

Gangs of New York earned Scorsese his first Golden Globe for Best Director. In February 2003, Gangs of New York received ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, however it did not win in any category.

Scorsese also had uncredited involvement as executive producer with the 2002 film Deuces Wild,^[60] written by Paul Kimatian.

[edit] The Blues

The following year Scorsese completed production of The Blues, an expansive seven part documentary tracing the history of blues music from its African roots to the Mississippi Delta and beyond. Seven film-makers including Wim Wenders, Clint Eastwood, Mike Figgis, and Scorsese himself each contributed a 90 minute film (Scorsese's entry was entitled "Feel Like Going Home").

[edit] The Aviator

Scorsese's film The Aviator (2004), was a lavish, large-scale biopic of eccentric aviation pioneer and film mogul Howard Hughes and would reunite Scorsese with actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The film received highly positive reviews.^{[61][62][63][64][65]} The film also met with widespread box office success and gained Academy recognition.

The Aviator was nominated for six Golden Globe awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Leonardo DiCaprio. It won three, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. In January 2005, The Aviator became the most-nominated film of the 77th Academy Awards nominations, nominated in 11 categories including Best Picture. The film also garnered nominations in nearly all of the other major categories, including a fifth Best Director nomination for Scorsese, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Cate Blanchett), and Alan Alda for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Despite having a leading tally, the film ended up with only five Oscars: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Cinematography. Scorsese lost again, this time to director Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby (which also won Best Picture).

[edit] No Direction Home

No Direction Home is a documentary film by Martin Scorsese that tells of the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on American popular music and culture of the 20th century. The film does not cover Dylan's entire career; it focuses on his beginnings, his rise to fame in the 1960s, his then-controversial transformation from an acoustic guitar-based musician and performer to an electric guitar-influenced sound and his "retirement" from touring in 1966 following an infamous motorcycle accident. The film was first presented on television in both the United States (as part of the PBS American Masters series) and the United Kingdom (as part of the BBC Two Arena series) on September 26–27, 2005. A DVD version of the film was released that same month. The film won a Peabody award. In addition, Scorsese received an Emmy nomination for it.

[edit] The Departed

Scorsese returned to the crime genre with the Boston-set thriller The Departed, based on the Hong Kong police drama Infernal Affairs. Along with Matt Damon, Leonardo Di Caprio, The Departed was Scorsese's first collaboration with Jack Nicholson and Martin Sheen.

The Departed opened to widespread critical acclaim with some proclaiming it as one of the best efforts Scorsese had brought to the screen since 1990's Goodfellas,^[66][67] and still others putting it at the same level as Scorsese's most celebrated classics Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.^[68][69] With domestic box office receipts surpassing $129,402,536, The Departed was Scorsese's highest grossing film (not accounting for inflation) until 2010's Shutter Island.

Martin Scorsese's direction of The Departed earned him his second Golden Globe for Best Director, as well as a Critic's Choice Award, his first Director's Guild of America Award, and the Academy Award for Best Director. While being presented with the award, Scorsese said "Could you double-check the envelope?" It was presented to him by his longtime friends and colleagues Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas. The Departed also received the Academy Award for the Best Motion Picture of 2006, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing by longtime Scorsese editor Thelma Schoonmaker, her third win for a Scorsese film, though many thought Scorsese deserved Academy Awards in his past films as well.

[edit] Shine a Light

Shine a Light is a concert film of rock and roll band The Rolling Stones' performances at New York City's Beacon Theater on October 29 and November 1, 2006, intercut with brief news and interview footage from throughout the band's career.

The film was initially scheduled for release on September 21, 2007, but Paramount Classics postponed its general release until April 2008. Its world premiere was at the opening of the 58th Berlinale Film Festival on February 7, 2008.

2010s[link]

[edit] Shutter Island

On October 22, 2007, Daily Variety reported that Scorsese would reunite with Leonardo DiCaprio on a fourth picture, Shutter Island. Principal photography on the Laeta Kalogridis screenplay, based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, began in Massachusetts in March 2008.^[70][71]

In December 2007, actors Mark Ruffalo, Max von Sydow, Ben Kingsley, and Michelle Williams joined the cast,^[72][73] marking the first time these four actors have worked with Scorsese. The film was released on February 19, 2010.^[74] On May 20, 2010, the film was Scorsese's highest grossing film.^[75]

[edit] Boardwalk Empire

Martin Scorsese in Cannes, 2010

Scorsese directed the series premiere for Boardwalk Empire, an HBO drama series,^[76] starring Steve Buscemi and Michael Pitt, and based upon Nelson Johnson's book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City.^[77] Terence Winter, who previously wrote for The Sopranos, created the series. In addition to directing the pilot (for which he won the 2011 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing), Scorsese also serves as an executive producer on the series.^[77]

The series premiered on September 19, 2010 and was renewed for a second season. On October 12, 2011, the series was renewed again for a third season.^[77]

[edit] Living in the Material World

Scorsese directed a three-and-a-half-hour documentary about the life and music of former Beatles member George Harrison, which premiered in the United States on HBO over two parts on October 5 and 6, 2011.^[78]

[edit] Hugo

Hugo is a 3D adventure drama film based on Brian Selznick's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The film stars Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer and Jude Law. The film has been met with critical acclaim^[79][80][81] and earned Scorsese his third Golden Globe Award for Best Director. The film was also nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning five of them and becoming tied with Michel Hazanavicius's film The Artist for the most Academy Awards won by a single film in 2011. Hugo also won two BAFTA awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Director, among other numerous awards and nominations.

Hugo is Scorsese’s first 3D film and was released in the US on November 23, 2011.^[82]

Future films[link]

Scorsese's next movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio and is called The Wolf Of Wall Street.^[83] Scorsese has also announced several potential future projects.^[84] A documentary feature on Scorsese by artist Melinda Camber Porter was nearly complete when she lost her life to cancer. Scorsese anticipates filming an adaptation of Shusaku Endo's novel Silence, a drama about the voyages of two Portuguese Jesuit priests in Japan during the 17th Century. Scorsese had originally planned Silence as his next project following Shutter Island.^[85] Scorsese reported that his long-planned Frank Sinatra biopic is coming up, with Phil Alden Robinson writing the screenplay.^[86] He is also attached to direct The Irishman, which will star Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino.^[87] It has also been announced that Scorsese is attached to direct an adaptation of Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø's novel The Snowman.^[88] In an interview discussing Hugo with Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo on their BBC Podcast Scorsese mentioned that he is working on a TV series on the history of the Rock industry.

Collaborations with Robert De Niro[link]

Scorsese frequently collaborated with Robert De Niro, making a total of eight films with the actor. After being introduced to him in the early 1970s, Scorsese cast De Niro in his 1973 film Mean Streets. Three years later, De Niro starred in Taxi Driver, this time holding the lead role. De Niro re-joined Scorsese for New York, New York in 1977, but the film was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, their partnership continued into the 1980s, when the pair made Raging Bull, which was highly successful, and The King of Comedy. In the 1990s, De Niro starred in Goodfellas, one of the pair's most praised films, and 1991's Cape Fear, before making Casino in 1995. The two also voiced major parts in the 2004 film Shark Tale. Scorsese and De Niro plan to re-unite for a film referred to as The Irishman based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses,^[89] although a date for the project is uncertain.

Honors[link]

• In 2007, Scorsese was listed among Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.
• In August 2007 Scorsese was named the 2nd greatest director of all time in a poll by Total Film magazine, in front of Steven Spielberg and behind Alfred Hitchcock.
• In 2007, Scorsese was honored by the National Italian American Foundation (N.I.A.F.) at the nonprofit's thirty-second Anniversary Gala. During the ceremony, Scorsese helped launch N.I.A.F.'s Jack Valenti Institute, which provides support to Italian film students in the U.S., in memory of former Foundation Board Member and past president of the Motion Picture Association of America (M.P.A.A.) Jack Valenti. Scorsese received his award from Mary Margaret Valenti, Jack's widow. Certain pieces of Scorsese's film related material and personal papers are contained in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives to which scholars and media experts from around the world may have full access.^[90]
• In 2011 Scorsese received an honorary doctorate from the National Film School in Lodz. At the awards ceremony he said, "I feel like I'm a part of this school and that I attended it", paying tribute to the films of Wajda, Munk, Has, Polanski and Skolimowski.^[91]

Director trademarks[link]

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• Begins his films with segments taken from the middle or end of the story. Examples include Raging Bull (1980),^[92] Goodfellas (1990),^[93] Casino (1995),^[94] and The Last Waltz.^[95]
• Frequent use of slow motion, e.g. Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), and Goodfellas (1990) .^[96] Also known for using freeze frame, such as the opening credits of The King of Comedy (1983), and throughout Goodfellas (1990). Such a shot is also used in the film "The Departed", (2006).
• His lead characters are often morally ambiguous, prone to violence, and/or want to be accepted in society or a society (The Departed, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas) and are not infrequently sociopaths (Cape Fear, Raging Bull, Casino).^[97]
• In most of his films the main character often falls in love and has a wife, and often has a turning point between the main character and the wife. e.g. Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino.
• His blonde leading ladies are usually seen through the eyes of the protagonist as angelic and ethereal; they wear white in their first scene and are photographed in slow-motion (Cybill Shepherd in Taxi Driver; Cathy Moriarty's white bikini in Raging Bull; Sharon Stone's white minidress in Casino).^[98] This may possibly be a nod to director Alfred Hitchcock.^[99]
• Often uses long tracking shots.^[100] Example: Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs Of New York, Hugo
• Use of MOS sequences set to popular music or voice over, often involving aggressive camera movement and/or rapid editing.^[101]
• The supporting actor will often betray the protagonist (Micheal in Mean Streets, Judas Iscariot in The Last Temptation of Christ, Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas, Nicky Santoro in Casino)
• Often has a quick cameo in his films (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, After Hours, The Last Temptation of Christ (albeit hidden under a hood), Casino, The Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York, Hugo). Also, often contributes his voice to a film without showing his face on screen. He provides the opening voice-over narration in Mean Streets and The Color of Money; plays the off-screen dressing room attendant in the final scene of Raging Bull; provides the voice of the unseen ambulance dispatcher in Bringing out the Dead.^[102]
• Frequently uses New York City as the main setting in his films, e.g. Gangs of New York, Taxi Driver, The Age of Innocence, The King of Comedy, After Hours, New York, New York, and Mean Streets.^[103]
• Sometimes highlights characters in a scene with an iris, an homage to 1920s silent film cinema (as scenes at the time sometimes used this transition). This effect can be seen in Casino (it is used on Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci), Life Lessons, The Departed (on Matt Damon), and Hugo.
• Some of his films include references/allusions to Westerns, particularly Shane, The Searchers and The Oklahoma Kid.
• More recently, his films have featured corrupt authority figures, such as policemen in The Departed^[104] and politicians in Gangs of New York^[105] and The Aviator.^[106]
• Guilt is a prominent theme in many of his films, as is the role of Catholicism in creating and dealing with guilt (Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Bringing Out the Dead, Mean Streets, Who's That Knocking at My Door, Shutter Island).
• Slow motion flashbulbs and accented camera/flash/shutter sounds.
• The song Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones is heard in several of Scorsese's films, including Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed.
• Some of his films are inspired by a true story. Examples: Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino.

Frequent collaborations[link]

Scorsese often casts the same actors in his films, particularly Robert De Niro, who collaborated with Scorsese for eight films. Included are the three films (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and Goodfellas) that made AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list. Scorsese has often said he thinks De Niro's best work under his direction was Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy. Most recently, Scorsese has found a new muse with young actor Leonardo DiCaprio, with whom he has collaborated for four films, with two others confirmed to be in the works.^[107] Several critics have compared Scorsese's new partnership with DiCaprio with his previous one with De Niro.^[108][109] Other frequent collaborators include Victor Argo (6), Harry Northup (6), Harvey Keitel (5), Murray Moston (5), Joe Pesci (3), Frank Vincent (3) and Verna Bloom (3). Daniel Day-Lewis, who had become very reclusive to the Hollywood scene, Alec Baldwin, Ben Kingsley, Jude Law, Emily Mortimer, John C. Reilly, Frank Sivero, and Ray Winstone have also appeared in multiple Scorsese films. Before their deaths, Scorsese's parents, Charles Scorsese and Catherine Scorsese, appeared in bit parts, walk-ons or supporting roles, most notably in Goodfellas.