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Anthony D. L. "Tony" Scott (born 21 June 1944) is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123 and Unstoppable. He is the younger brother of fellow film director Ridley Scott.

Early life[link]

Scott was born in North Shields, the son of Elizabeth and Colonel Francis Percy Scott.^[1] His first foray into filmmaking was not from behind the camera, but in front of it. At the age of 16, Tony appeared in Boy and Bicycle, a short film marking the directorial debut of his then 23 year-old brother Ridley. He followed in his elder brother's footsteps, studying at Grangefield School, West Hartlepool College of Art and Sunderland Art School, the last for a fine arts degree. He subsequently graduated from the Royal College of Art, fully intending to become a painter. It was only the success of his elder brother's fledging television commercial production outfit, Ridley Scott Associates (RSA), that turned his attentions towards film.

Tony had wanted to do documentaries at first. I told him, "Don't go to the BBC, come to me first." I knew that he had a fondness for cars, so I told him, "Come work with me and within a year you'll have a Ferrari." And he did.^[2]

In the course of the next two decades, Scott directed thousands of television commercials for RSA, while also overseeing the company's operation during periods in which his brother was developing his feature film career. Tony also took time out in 1975 to direct an adaptation of the Henry James story The Author of Beltraffio for French television, a project he landed by virtue of winning a coin-flip against his brother. After the considerable feature film successes of fellow British commercial directors Hugh Hudson, Alan Parker, Adrian Lyne and his elder brother in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Scott was beginning to receive overtures from Hollywood himself in 1980, but in the same year his elder brother Frank died of cancer.

1980s[link]

Scott persisted in trying to embark on a feature film career. Among the projects interesting him was an adaptation of the Anne Rice novel Interview with the Vampire then in development. MGM, however, had a vampire yarn of their own that they wanted Scott to direct, and after failing to convince the company to drop their project and tackle Interview instead, Scott instead decided to accept the MGM project, and pour into it all of the visual design concepts he had bandied about for Interview. In 1982, Scott began production on The Hunger.

The Hunger starred David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve as chic Manhattan socialite vampires, desperately searching for a medical cure to arrest Bowie's rapid aging. Willem Dafoe was introduced on film via a small, walk-on part in the film. The Hunger had elaborate photography and sumptuous production design, unlike many pictures at the time of its release in 1983. The picture failed to find an audience, received harsh reviews by critics and was ignored at the box office (though it later became a cult favourite). Finding himself largely unemployable in Hollywood for the next two and a half years, Scott returned to commercials and music videos.

In 1985, producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer signed Scott to direct Top Gun. Both of them were among the few admirers of The Hunger during its initial release. Simpson and Bruckheimer had settled upon choosing Scott largely on the basis of a commercial he had done for Swedish automaker Saab in the early 1980s: in the spot, a Saab 900 turbo is shown racing a Saab 37 Viggen fighter jet. Scott, though reluctant at first, agreed on directing Top Gun, one of the highest-grossing films of 1986, taking in more than US$176 million, and making a star of its young lead, Tom Cruise.

Following Top Gun's success, Scott found himself on Hollywood's A list of action directors. He reteamed with Simpson and Bruckheimer in 1987 to direct Eddie Murphy and Brigitte Nielsen in the highly anticipated sequel Beverly Hills Cop II. While not being critically embraced, the picture nevertheless became one of the year's highest grossers.

1990s[link]

His next film, Revenge (1990), a thriller of adultery and revenge set in Mexico, starred Kevin Costner, Madeleine Stowe and Anthony Quinn. Once again directing Tom Cruise, Scott returned to the Simpson-Bruckheimer fold to helm the big-budget film Days of Thunder (1990). Scott's next film was the action thriller The Last Boy Scout (1991).

Made for $13 million in 1993, Scott's production of Tarantino's True Romance boasted a cast including Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Tom Sizemore, Chris Penn, Val Kilmer and in bit roles, James Gandolfini and Samuel L. Jackson.

Scott's next film, Crimson Tide (1995), was a submarine thriller starring Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington. His follow-up film, 1996's The Fan, starred (Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, Ellen Barkin and Benicio del Toro). Scott's 1998 film Enemy of the State, a conspiracy thriller, starred Will Smith and Gene Hackman.

2000s[link]

Spy Game was released during the Thanksgiving holiday of 2001. It garnered 63% positive reviews at Metacritic and made a little over 60 million dollars at the U.S. box office. Man on Fire was released in April 2004 and made over 75 million dollars at the U.S. box office.

Next for Scott came Domino (2005) starring Keira Knightley. In autumn 2006, Scott reteamed with Denzel Washington for the futuristic action film Déjà Vu.

Scott, along with his brother Ridley Scott, were co-producers of the TV series Numb3rs, which aired from 2005 to 2010. Tony Scott directed the first episode of the fourth season.

Scott once again teamed up with Denzel Washington on The Taking of Pelham 123, which also starred John Travolta and was released in theater on June 12, 2009. The film was a remake of the 1974 film of the same title starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. 2009 also saw the debut of The Good Wife, a legal drama television series; Scott and his brother are two of several executive producers.

In 2010, the Scott brothers produced the feature film adaptation of the television series The A-Team.^[3] Scott's film, Unstoppable, again starring Washington (with Chris Pine), was released in November 2010.

Filmography[link]

Feature films[link]

• The Hunger (1983)
• Top Gun (1986)
• Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
• Revenge (1990)
• Days of Thunder (1990)
• The Last Boy Scout (1991)
• True Romance (1993)
• Crimson Tide (1995)
• The Fan (1996)
• Enemy of the State (1998)
• Spy Game (2001)
• Man on Fire (2004)
• Domino (2005)
• Déjà Vu (2006)
• The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)
• Unstoppable (2010)

Television[link]

• The Hunger (1 episode in 1997 and 1 in 1999)
• Numb3rs, Executive producer (2009 to 2010)
• The Good Wife, Executive producer (2009 to present)
• Gettysburg, Executive producer (2011)
• Labyrinth, Executive producer (2012)

Short films[link]

• Loving Memory (1969)
• One of the Missing (1971)
• The Hire: Beat the Devil (2002)
• Agent Orange (2004)

Music videos[link]

• "Danger Zone" – Kenny Loggins (1986)
• "One More Try" – George Michael (1988)

Commercials[link]

• DIM Underwear (1979)
• Player, Achievements and Big Bang for Barclays Bank (2000)
• Telecom Italia (2000) (Starring Marlon Brando and Woody Allen)
• Ice Soldier for US Army (2002)
• One Man, One Land for Marlboro (2003)

Recurring collaborators[link]

Actor	Top Gun	Revenge	Days of Thunder	The Last Boy Scout	True Romance	Crimson Tide	The Fan	Enemy of the State	Spy Game	Man on Fire	Domino	Deja Vu	The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3	Unstoppable	Total
Shondrella Avery											N	N			2
Jack Black							N	N							2
Lillo Brancato, Jr.						N		N							2
Dan Butler							N	N							2
Kevin Corrigan					N									N	2
Matt Craven						N						N			2
Tom Cruise	N		N												2
James Gandolfini					N	N							N		3
Gene Hackman						N		N							2
Val Kilmer	N				N							N			3
John Leguizamo		N					N								2
Frank Medrano							N	N							2
Brad Pitt					N				N						2
Mickey Rourke										N	N				2
Joe Santos		N		N											2
Tom Sizemore					N			N							2
Lew Temple											N	N		N	3
Christopher Walken					N					N	N				3
Denzel Washington						N				N		N	N	N	5

References[link]

External links[link]

• Tony Scott at the Internet Movie Database
• Tony Scott at AllRovi
• Daily Variety, 6 Aug. 1996: Spotlight on Tony Scott – Billion Dollar Director

Horst Jankowski (January 30, 1936 – June 29, 1998)^[1] was a classically trained German pianist, most famous for his internationally successful easy listening music.

Biography[link]

Born in Berlin,^[1] Jankowski studied at the Berlin Music Conservatory and played jazz in Germany in the 1950s, serving as bandleader for singer Caterina Valente. Jankowski's fame as a composer of easy listening pop peaked in 1965 with his tune "Eine Schwarzwaldfahrt", released in English as "A Walk in the Black Forest". The tune became a pop hit, reaching #1 on the US easy listening chart,^[2] #12 on the US Billboard Hot 100,^[3] and #3 on the UK Singles Chart.^[4] It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.^[5] The track was featured on the BBC's review of the 1960s music scene, Pop Go The Sixties, broadcast on BBC One and ZDF, on January 1, 1970. The Genius of Jankowski album, released in 1965, was also a million seller.^[5]

The instrumental tune was covered by many artists including Herb Alpert and Peter Nero.

Jankowski went on to score a string of successful albums, but moved on in the 1970s to concentrate more on jazz, including covers of pop and rock hits.^[6] Between 1989 and 1994 Jankowski composed and performed easy listening music for Sonoton, Germany.

Jankowski died of lung cancer in 1998, at the age of 62.^[1]

Discography[link]

• Traumklang und Rhythmus (1965; Mercury Records)
• Encore (1965; Mercury Records)
• The Genius of Jankowski (1965; Mercury Records) US #18^[7]
• More Genius of Jankowski (1966; Mercury Records) US #65
• Sing mit Horst (1966; Mercury Records)
• Still More Genius of Jankowski (1967; Mercury Records) US #107
• The Horst Jankowski Scene (1967; Mercury Records)
• And We Got Love (1967; Mercury Records)
• Baby, But Grand (1967; Mercury Records)
• So What's New? (1968; Mercury Records)
• Play Some More, lieber Horst (1968; Mercury Records)
• The Many Moods of Jankowski (1968; Mercury Records)
• Piano Affairs (1968; Mercury Records)
• Jankowski Plays Jankowski (1969; Mercury Records)
• Jankowski Meets Beethoven (1969, Mercury Records)
• A Walk in the Evergreens (1969; Mercury Records)
• Piano on the Rocks (1970; Mercury Records)
• Jankowskingsize – For Nightpeople Only (1970; MPS)
• Jankowskinetik (1970; MSP)
• Jankowskeynotes (1970; MPS)
• Follow Me (1972; Intercord)
• International (1973; Intercord)
• Jankowskyline (1973; Intercord)
• Happy Blue Piano (1982; Sonoton / Intersound)
• The Best of Mr. Black Forest (1989; Sonoton / Intersound)
• Piano Interlude (1994; Sonoton / Intersound)
• Black Forest Explosion! (1997; Motor Music)
• Eine Schwarzwaldfahrt (1998; Mercury Records)
• Jankowskinetik (2003; Universal)
• Jankowskeynotes (2004; Universal)

See also[link]

• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart

References[link]

External links[link]

• Detailed information on Horst Jankowski
• Horst Jankowski at Find a Grave

Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington in 2000
Born	Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. (1954-12-28) December 28, 1954 (age 57) Mount Vernon, New York, United States
Occupation	Actor, screenwriter, director, producer
Years active	1974–present
Spouse	Pauletta Washington (1983–present)

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr. Philip Chandler for six years. He has received much critical acclaim for his work in film since the 1990s, including for his portrayals of real-life figures, such as Steve Biko, Malcolm X, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Melvin B. Tolson, Frank Lucas and Herman Boone.

Washington has received two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe awards, and a Tony Award.^[1] He is notable for winning the Best Supporting Actor for Glory in 1989; and the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2001 for his role in the film Training Day.^[2]

Early life[link]

Denzel Washington was born in Mount Vernon, near New York City, New York on December 28, 1954. His mother, Lennis "Lynne", was a beauty parlor-owner and operator born in Georgia and partly raised in Harlem. His father, Reverend Denzel Hayes Washington, Sr., a native of Buckingham County, Virginia, served as an ordained Pentecostal minister, and also worked for the Water Department and a local department store, S. Klein.^[3][4][5]

Washington attended grammar school at Pennington-Grimes Elementary School in Mount Vernon until 1968. When he was 14, his parents' marriage fell apart and his mother sent him to a private preparatory school, Oakland Military Academy, in New Windsor, New York. "That decision changed my life," Washington later said, "because I wouldn’t have survived in the direction I was going. The guys I was hanging out with at the time, my running buddies, have now done maybe 40 years combined in the penitentiary. They were nice guys, but the streets got them."^[6] After Oakland, Washington next attended Mainland High School, a public high school in Daytona Beach, Florida, from 1970–71.^[3] Washington was interested in attending Texas Tech University: "I grew up in the Boys Club in Mount Vernon, and we were the Red Raiders. So when I was in high school, I wanted to go to Texas Tech in Lubbock just because they were called the Red Raiders and their uniforms looked like ours."^[7] Washington earned a B.A. in Drama and Journalism from Fordham University in 1977.^[8] At Fordham he played collegiate basketball as a freshman guard^[9] under coach P. J. Carlesimo.^[10] After a period of indecision on which major to study and dropping out of school for a semester, Washington worked as a counselor at an overnight summer camp, Camp Sloane YMCA in Lakeville, Connecticut. He participated in a staff talent show for the campers and a colleague suggested he try acting.^[11]

Returning to Fordham that fall with a renewed purpose and focus, he enrolled at the Lincoln Center campus to study acting and was given the title roles in both Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones and Shakespeare's Othello. Upon graduation he attended graduate school at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, where he stayed for one year before returning to New York to begin a professional acting career.^[12]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Washington at the 62nd Academy Awards, at which he won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Washington spent the summer of 1976 in St. Mary's City, Maryland in summer stock theater performing Wings of the Morning, the Maryland State play. He also filmed a series of commercials in the Fruit of the Loom ensemble, as Grapes. Shortly after graduating from Fordham, Washington made his professional acting debut in the 1977 made-for-television film Wilma with his first Hollywood appearance in the 1981 film Carbon Copy. Washington shared a 1982 Distinguished Ensemble Performance Obie Award for playing Private First Class Melvin Peterson in the Off-Broadway Negro Ensemble Company production A Soldier's Play which premiered November 20, 1981.^[13]

A major career break came when he starred as Dr. Phillip Chandler in the television hospital drama St. Elsewhere which ran from 1982 to 1988 on NBC. He was one of only a few African American actors to appear on the series for its entire six-year run. Washington also appeared in several television, film and stage roles such as the films A Soldier's Story (1984), Hard Lessons (1986) and Power (1986). In 1987 Washington starred as South African anti-apartheid political activist Steven Biko in Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 1989 Washington won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a defiant self-possessed ex-slave soldier in the film Glory. Also that year he appeared in the film The Mighty Quinn, and as the conflicted and disillusioned Reuben James, a British soldier who, despite a distinguished military career, returns to a civilian life where racism and inner city life leads to vigilantism and violence in For Queen and Country.

1990s[link]

1991, Washington starred as Bleek Gilliam in the Spike Lee film Mo' Better Blues. In 1992, he starred as Demetrius Williams in the romantic drama Mississippi Masala. Washington was reunited with Lee to play one of his most critically acclaimed roles as the title character of 1992's Malcolm X. His performance as the black nationalist leader earned him another nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The next year he played the lawyer of a gay man with AIDS in the 1993 film Philadelphia. During the early and mid 1990s, Washington starred in several successful thrillers, including The Pelican Brief and Crimson Tide, as well as in comedy Much Ado About Nothing and alongside Whitney Houston in the romantic drama The Preacher's Wife.^{[citation needed]}

In 1998, Washington starred in Spike Lee's film, He Got Game. Washington played a father serving a six year prison term who is propositioned by the warden to a temporary parole on the terms that he must convince his top-ranked high-school basketball player son (Ray Allen), into signing with the governor's alma mater, Big State. The film also marked the third time that Spike Lee and Washington worked on a film together.^[14]

In 1999, Washington starred in The Hurricane a film about boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter whose conviction for triple murder was overturned after he had spent almost 20 years in prison. A former reporter who was angry at seeing the film portray Carter as innocent despite the overturned conviction began a campaign to pressure Academy Award voters not to award the film Oscars.^[15] Washington did receive a Golden Globe Award in 2000 and a Silver Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival for the role.

He also presented the Arthur Ashe ESPY Award to Loretta Claiborne for her courage and appeared as himself in the end of The Loretta Claiborne Story film.^{[citation needed]}

2000s[link]

In 2000, Washington appeared in the Disney film Remember the Titans which grossed over $100 million at the United States box office.^[16]

When Washington won a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Movie in 2000, as he noted: "No African-American has won best actor in the Golden Globes since Sidney Poitier, until I did".^[17] That made him the first Black actor to win the award in 36 years.^[18]

He won an Academy Award for Best Actor in his next film, the 2001 cop thriller Training Day as Detective Alonzo Harris, a rogue Los Angeles cop with questionable law-enforcement tactics. Washington was the second African-American performer to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, the first being Sidney Poitier who happened to receive an Honorary Academy Award the same night that Washington won. Washington holds the record (five so far) for most Oscar nominations by an actor of African descent, along with Morgan Freeman since 2009.

After appearing in 2002's box office success, the health care-themed John Q., Washington directed his first film, a well-reviewed drama called Antwone Fisher, in which he also co-starred.

Between 2003 and 2004, Washington appeared in a series of thrillers that performed generally well at the box office, including Out of Time, Man on Fire, and The Manchurian Candidate.^[19] In 2006, he starred in Inside Man, a Spike Lee-directed bank heist thriller co-starring Jodie Foster and Clive Owen, and Déjà Vu released in November 2006.

In 2006, Denzel worked alongside multi-talented Irish off-rock band The Script on their new project combining music and Hollywood. The hybrid of genres was critically acclaimed but didn't receive much mainstream attention due to a legal conflicts between The Script's record label and Denzel's studio commitments.

In 2007, he co-starred with Russell Crowe, for the second time after Virtuosity in 1995, in American Gangster. Washington directed and starred in the drama The Great Debaters with Forest Whitaker. Washington next appeared in the 2009 film The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, a remake of the 1974 thriller The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, directed by Tony Scott as New York City subway security chief Walter Garber opposite John Travolta.^[20]

Return to theater[link]

Washington after a performance of Julius Caesar in May 2005

Washington was last seen onstage in the summer of 1990 in the title role of the Public Theater's production of Shakespeare's Richard III and in 2005, after a 15-year hiatus, he appeared onstage again in another Shakespeare play as Marcus Brutus in Julius Caesar on Broadway. The production's limited run was a consistent sell-out averaging over 100% attendance capacity nightly despite receiving mixed reviews.^[21]

2010s[link]

In February 2009, Washington began filming The Book of Eli, a post-Apocalyptic drama set in the near future which was released in January 2010. Also the same year, he starred as a veteran railroad engineer in the action film Unstoppable, about an unmanned, half-mile-long runaway freight train carrying a dangerous cargo. The film was directed by Tony Scott, and was the fifth collaboration between the two, after previous films Crimson Tide (1995), Man on Fire (2004), Déjà Vu (2006) and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009).

On June 13, 2010, Washington won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his role in the play Fences.^[22][23] Washington co-starred with Ryan Reynolds in the 2012 film Safe House, and will star in The Matarese Circle.

Personal life[link]

On June 25, 1983, Washington married Pauletta Pearson, whom he met on the set of his first screen work, the television film Wilma. The couple have four children: John David (b. July 28, 1984), who signed a football contract with the St. Louis Rams in May 2006 and is currently playing with the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League (John David also played college football at Morehouse);^[24] Katia (b. November 27, 1987), who graduated from Yale University with a Bachelors of Arts in 2010; and twins Olivia and Malcolm (b. April 10, 1991) (Malcolm attends the University of Pennsylvania). In 1995, the couple renewed their wedding vows in South Africa with Archbishop Desmond Tutu officiating.^[25]

Washington is a devout Christian,^[26] and has considered becoming a preacher. He stated in 1999, "A part of me still says, ‘Maybe, Denzel, you’re supposed to preach. Maybe you’re still compromising.’ I’ve had an opportunity to play great men and, through their words, to preach. I take what talent I’ve been given seriously, and I want to use it for good.”^[27] In 1995 he donated 2.5 million dollars to help build the new West Angeles Church of God in Christ facility in Los Angeles.^[28]

Washington has served as the national spokesperson for Boys & Girls Clubs of America since 1993.^[29] As such, he has been featured in several public service announcements and awareness campaigns for the organization.^[30] In addition, he has served as a board member for Boys & Girls Clubs of America since 1995.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia named Washington as one of three people (the others being directors Oliver Stone and Michael Moore) with whom they were willing to negotiate for the release of three defense contractors that the group had held captive from 2003 to 2008.^[31]

On May 18, 1991, Washington was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Fordham University, for having "impressively succeeded in exploring the edge of his multifaceted talent".^[32] In 2011 he donated $2 million to Fordham for an endowed chair of the theatre department, as well as $250,000 for a theatre-specific scholarship to Fordham. He also was awarded an honorary doctorate of humanities from Morehouse College on May 20, 2007.^[33]

In 2008, Washington visited Israel with a delegation of African American artists in honor of the Jewish state's 60th birthday.^[34]

Washington is a fan of the New York Yankees. He is good friends with former manager Joe Torre. He is also good friends with comedians Jerry Seinfeld and George Wallace.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Denzel Washington

• Denzel Washington at the Internet Movie Database
• Denzel Washington at the TCM Movie Database
• Denzel Washington at the Internet Broadway Database
• Denzel Washington at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Denzel Washington at Moviefone.com

• Reader's Digest article on symmetrical faces named Denzel as the perfect example of a perfect face. Denzel Washington (shown here as a computer rendering), also named one of the sexiest men alive, was calculated to have one of the most symmetrical faces in Hollywood. http://cebuanddavao.com/2011/05/29/what-makes-denzel-washingtons-face-so-perfect/