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Greenwich Village Historic District
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Washington Square Park, in the heart of Greenwich Village
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Location: | Bounded by: W 14th Street on the North; W Houston Street on the South; the Hudson River on the West; Broadway on the East |
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Coordinates: | 40°44′2″N 74°0′4″W / 40.73389°N 74.00111°W / 40.73389; -74.00111Coordinates: 40°44′2″N 74°0′4″W / 40.73389°N 74.00111°W / 40.73389; -74.00111 |
Built: | 1799 |
Architectural style: | Mid 19th Century Revival, Italianate, Federal |
Governing body: | State |
NRHP Reference#: | 79001604[1] |
Added to NRHP: | June 19, 1979 |
Greenwich Village,[pronunciation 1] often referred to in New York as simply "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families. Greenwich Village, however, was known in the late 19th to mid 20th centuries as an artists' haven, the bohemian capital, and the East Coast birthplace of the Beat movement. What provided the initial attractive character of the community eventually contributed to its gentrification and commercialization.[2]
The name of the village is Anglicized from the Dutch name Greenwijck, meaning "Pine District", into Greenwich, a borough of London.[3]
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The neighborhood is bordered by Broadway to the east, the Hudson River to the west, Houston Street to the south, and 14th Street to the north.[citation needed] The neighborhoods surrounding it are the East Village and NoHo to the east, SoHo to the south, and Chelsea to the north. The East Village was formerly considered part of the Lower East Side and never associated with Greenwich Village.[4] The West Village is the area of Greenwich Village west of 7th Avenue, though realtors claim the dividing line is farther east at 6th Avenue. The Far West Village is a sub-neighborhood from the Hudson River to Hudson Street. The neighborhood is located in New York's 8th congressional district, New York's 25th State Senate district, New York's 66th State Assembly district, and New York City Council's 3rd district.
Into the early 20th century, Greenwich Village was distinguished from the upper-class neighborhood of Washington Square – based on the major landmark Washington Square Park[5] or Empire Ward[6] in the 19th century.
Encyclopædia Britannica's 1956 article on "New York (City)" (subheading "Greenwich Village") states that the southern border of the Village is Spring Street, reflecting an earlier understanding (today, Spring Street might be considered the southern boundary of the neighborhood sometimes called the South Village, though some cite Canal Street as the furthest extent of the South Village). The newer district of SoHo has since encroached on the Village's historic border.
As Greenwich Village was once a rural hamlet, to the north of the earliest European settlement on Manhattan Island, its street layout is more haphazard than the grid pattern of the 19th-century grid plan (based on the Commissioners' Plan of 1811). Greenwich Village was allowed to keep its street pattern in areas west of Greenwich Lane (now Greenwich Avenue) and Sixth Avenue, which were already built up when the plan was implemented, resulting in a neighborhood whose streets are dramatically different, in layout, from the ordered structure of newer parts of town. Many of the neighborhood's streets are narrow and some curve at odd angles. In addition, unlike streets of most of Manhattan above Houston Street, streets in the Village typically are named rather than numbered. While some of the formerly named streets (including Factory, Herring and Amity Streets) are now numbered, even they do not always conform to the usual grid pattern when they enter the neighborhood. For example, West 4th Street, which runs east-west outside of the Village, turns and runs north, causing it to intersect with West 10th, 11th, 12th, and ending at West 13th Street.
A large section of Greenwich Village, made up of more than 50 northern and western blocks in the area up to 14th Street, is part of a Historic District established by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The District's convoluted borders run no farther south than 4th Street or St. Luke's Place, and no farther east than Washington Square East or University Place.[7] Redevelopment in that area is severely restricted, and developers must preserve the main facade and aesthetics of the buildings even during renovation.
Most parts of Greenwich Village comprise mid-rise apartments, 19th-century row houses and the occasional one-family walk-up, a sharp contrast to the hi-rise landscape in Mid- and Downtown Manhattan.
In the 16th century, Native Americans referred to its farthest northwest corner, by the cove on the Hudson River at present-day Gansevoort Street, as Sapokanikan ("tobacco field"). The land was cleared and turned into pasture by Dutch and freed African settlers in the 1630s, who named their settlement Noortwyck. In the 1630s, Governor Wouter van Twiller farmed tobacco on 200 acres (0.81 km2) here at his "Farm in the Woods".[8] The English conquered the Dutch settlement of New Netherland in 1664 and Greenwich Village developed as a hamlet separate from the larger (and fast-growing) New York City to the south.
It officially became a village in 1712 and is first referred to as Grin'wich in 1713 Common Council records. Sir Peter Warren began accumulating land in 1731 and built a frame house capacious enough to hold a sitting of the Assembly when smallpox rendered the city dangerous in 1739. His house, which survived until the Civil War era, overlooked the North River from a bluff; its site on the block bounded by Perry and Charles Streets, Bleecker and West 4th Streets,[9] can still be recognized by its mid-19th century rowhouses inserted into a neighborhood still retaining many houses of the 1830–37 boom.
The oldest house remaining in Greenwich Village is the Isaacs-Hendricks House, at 77 Bedford Street (built 1799, much altered and enlarged 1836, third story 1928).[10] When the Church of St. Luke in the Fields was founded in 1820 it stood in fields south of the road (now Christopher Street) that led from Greenwich Lane (now Greenwich Avenue) down to a landing on the North River. In 1822, a yellow fever epidemic in New York encouraged residents to flee to the healthier air of Greenwich Village, and afterwards many stayed. The future site of Washington Square was a potter's field from 1797 to 1823 when 10 to 20,000 of New York's poor were buried here, and still remain. The handsome Greek revival rowhouses on the north side of Washington Square were built about 1832, establishing the fashion of Washington Square and lower Fifth Avenue for decades to come. Well into the 19th century, the district of Washington Square was considered separate from Greenwich Village.
Greenwich Village is generally known as an important landmark on the map of American bohemian culture. The neighborhood is known for its colorful, artistic residents and the alternative culture they propagate. Due in part to the progressive attitudes of many of its residents, the Village has traditionally been a focal point of new movements and ideas, whether political, artistic, or cultural. This tradition as an enclave of avant-garde and alternative culture was established during the 19th century and into the 20th century, when small presses, art galleries, and experimental theater thrived.
The Tenth Street Studio Building was situated at 51 West 10th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, the building was commissioned by James Boorman Johnston[11] and designed by Richard Morris Hunt. Its innovative design soon represented a national architectural prototype,[12] and featured a domed central gallery, from which interconnected rooms radiated. Hunt's studio within the building housed the first architectural school in the United States.[13] Soon after its completion in 1857, the building helped to make Greenwich Village central to the arts in New York City, drawing artists from all over the country to work, exhibit, and sell their art. In its initial years Winslow Homer took a studio there,[14] as did Edward Lamson Henry, and many of the artists of the Hudson River School, including Frederic Church and Albert Bierstadt.[15]
The Hotel Albert from the late 19th century through the 21st century has served as a cultural icon of Greenwich Village. Opened during the 1880s and originally located at 11th Street and University Place, called the Hotel St. Stephan and then after 1902, called The Hotel Albert while under the ownership of William Ryder it served as a meeting place, restaurant and dwelling for several important artists and writers from the late 19th century well into the 20th century. After 1902 the owner of the Hotel Albert's brother Albert Pinkham Ryder lived and painted there. Some of the other famous guests who lived there include: Augustus St. Gaudens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Hart Crane, Walt Whitman, Anaïs Nin, Thomas Wolfe, Robert Lowell, Horton Foote, Salvador Dalí, Philip Guston, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and many others.[16][17] During the golden age of bohemianism, Greenwich Village became famous for such eccentrics as Joe Gould (profiled at length by Joseph Mitchell) and Maxwell Bodenheim, dancer Isadora Duncan, writer William Faulkner, and playwright Eugene O'Neill. Political rebellion also made its home here, whether serious (John Reed) or frivolous (Marcel Duchamp and friends set off balloons from atop Washington Square arch, proclaiming the founding of "The Independent Republic of Greenwich Village").[18]
In 1924, the Cherry Lane Theatre was established. Located at 38 Commerce Street it is New York City's oldest continuously running Off-Broadway theater. A landmark in Greenwich Village’s cultural landscape, it was built as a farm silo in 1817, and also served as a tobacco warehouse and box factory before Edna St. Vincent Millay and other members of the Provincetown Players converted the structure into a theatre they christened the Cherry Lane Playhouse, which opened on March 24, 1924, with the play The Man Who Ate the Popomack. During the 1940s The Living Theatre, Theatre of the Absurd, and the Downtown Theater movement all took root there, and it developed a reputation as a place where aspiring playwrights and emerging voices could showcase their work.
In one of the many Manhattan properties Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and her husband owned, Gertrude Whitney established the Whitney Studio Club at 8 West 8th Street as a facility where young artists could exhibit their works in 1914. By the 1930s the place would evolve to become her greatest legacy, the Whitney Museum of American Art, on the site of today's New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. The Whitney was founded in 1931, as an answer to the then newly founded (1928) Museum of Modern Art's collection of mostly European modernism and its neglect of American Art. Gertrude Whitney decided to put the time and money into the museum after the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art turned down her offer to contribute her twenty-five-year collection of modern art works.[19] In 1936, the renowned Abstract Expressionist artist and teacher Hans Hofmann moved his art school from E. 57th Street to 52 West 9th Street. In 1938, Hofmann moved again to a more permanent home at 52 West 8th Street. The school remained active until 1958 when Hofmann retired from teaching.[20]
The Village hosted the first racially integrated night club in the United States,[21] when the nightclub Café Society was opened in 1938 at 1 Sheridan Square[22] by Barney Josephson. Café Society showcased African American talent and was intended to be an American version of the political cabarets Josephson had seen in Europe before World War II. Notable performers there included among others: Pearl Bailey, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Burl Ives, Leadbelly, Anita O'Day, Charlie Parker, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Paul Robeson, Kay Starr, Art Tatum, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Josh White, Teddy Wilson, Lester Young, and The Weavers, who also in Christmas 1949, played at the Village Vanguard.
The Village again became important to the bohemian scene during the 1950s, when the Beat Generation focused their energies there. Fleeing from what they saw as oppressive social conformity, a loose collection of writers, poets, artists, and students (later known as the Beats) and the Beatniks, moved to Greenwich Village, and to North Beach in San Francisco, in many ways creating the east coast-west coast predecessor to the Haight-Ashbury-East Village hippie scene of the next decade. The Village (and surrounding New York City) would later play central roles in the writings of, among others, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, James Baldwin, Truman Capote, Marianne Moore, Maya Angelou, Rod McKuen, and Dylan Thomas, who collapsed at the Chelsea Hotel and died at St. Vincents Hospital at 170 West 12th Street, in the Village after drinking at the White Horse Tavern on November 5, 1953.
Off-Off-Broadway began in Greenwich Village in 1958 as a reaction to Off Broadway, and a "complete rejection of commercial theatre".[23] Among the first venues for what would soon be called "Off-Off-Broadway" (a term supposedly coined by critic Jerry Tallmer of the Village Voice) were coffeehouses in Greenwich Village, in particular, the Caffe Cino at 31 Cornelia Street, operated by the eccentric Joe Cino, who early on took a liking to actors and playwrights and agreed to let them stage plays there without bothering to read the plays first, or to even find out much about the content. Also integral to the rise of Off-Off-Broadway were Ellen Stewart at La MaMa, originally located at 321 E. 9th Street and Al Carmines at the Judson Poets' Theater, located at Judson Memorial Church on the south side of Washington Square Park.
The Village had a cutting-edge cabaret and music scene. The Village Gate, the Village Vanguard and The Blue Note (since 1981), hosted some of the biggest names in jazz on a regular basis. Greenwich Village also played a major role in the development of the folk music scene of the 1960s. Music clubs included Gerde's Folk City, The Bitter End, Cafe Au Go Go, Cafe Wha?, The Gaslight Cafe and the Bottom Line. Three of the four members of The Mamas & the Papas met there. Guitarist and folk singer Dave Van Ronk lived there for many years. Village resident and cultural icon Bob Dylan by the mid-60s became one of the foremost popular songwriters in the world, and often developments in Greenwich Village would influence the simultaneously occurring folk rock movement in San Francisco and elsewhere, and vice versa. Dozens of other cultural and popular icons got their start in the Village's nightclub, theater, and coffeehouse scene during the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, notably besides Bob Dylan, there were Jimi Hendrix, Barbra Streisand, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Bette Midler, The Lovin' Spoonful, Simon & Garfunkel, Liza Minnelli, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Eric Andersen, Joan Baez, The Velvet Underground, The Kingston Trio, Carly Simon, Richie Havens, Maria Muldaur, Tom Paxton, Janis Ian, Phil Ochs, Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, and Nina Simone among others. The Greenwich Village of the 1950s and 1960s was at the center of Jane Jacobs's book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which defended it and similar communities, while critiquing common urban renewal policies of the time.
Founded by New York based artist Mercedes Matter and her students the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture is an art school formed in the mid 1960s. The school officially opened September 23, 1964, it is still currently active and it is housed at 8 W. 8th Street, the site of the original Whitney Museum of American Art.[24]
Greenwich Village was also home to one of the many safe houses used by the radical anti-war movement known as the Weather Underground. On March 6, 1970, however, their safehouse was destroyed when an explosive they were constructing was accidentally detonated, killing three Weathermen (Ted Gold, Terry Robbins, and Diana Oughton).
In recent days, the Village has maintained its role as a center for movements that have challenged the wider American culture, for example, its role in the gay liberation movement. It contains Christopher Street and the Stonewall Inn, important landmarks, as well as the world's oldest gay and lesbian bookstore, Oscar Wilde Bookshop, founded in 1967. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center – best known as simply "The Center" – has occupied the former Food & Maritime Trades High School at 208 West 13th Street since 1984. In 2006, the Village was the scene of an assault involving seven lesbians and a straight man that sparked appreciable media attention, with strong statements both defending and attacking the parties.
At the current time, artists and local historians mourn the fact that the bohemian days of Greenwich Village are long gone, because of the extraordinarily high housing costs in the neighborhood.[25][26][27] The artists fled first to SoHo then to TriBeCa and finally Williamsburg[26] and Bushwick[citation needed] in Brooklyn, Long Island City,[26] and DUMBO.[citation needed] Nevertheless, residents of Greenwich Village still possess a strong community identity and are proud of their neighborhood's unique history and fame, and its well-known liberal live-and-let-live attitudes.[27]
Greenwich Village is still home to celebrities, including many actresses/actors Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Uma Thurman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, Leontyne Price, Amy Sedaris, and Barbara Pierce Bush, the daughter of former U.S. President George W. Bush; Thurman and Bush both live on West Ninth Street.[28] American designer Marc Jacobs[29] and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper[30] live in the neighborhood. Alt-country/folk musician Steve Earle moved to the neighborhood in 2005,[31] and his album Washington Square Serenade is primarily about his experiences in the Village. The Village serves as home to Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue Magazine and Calvin Trillin, a feature writer for The New Yorker magazine.
Greenwich Village includes several college or post-baccaulaurate institutions. Since the 1830s New York University (NYU) has had a campus there. In 1973 NYU moved its main campus from University Heights in the West Bronx to Greenwich Village. In 1976 Yeshiva University's established Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in the northern part of Greenwich Village. In the 1980s Hebrew Union College built in Greenwich Village. The New School, with its Parsons The New School for Design, a division of The New School, and the School's Graduate School expanded in the 2000s, with the newly renovated, award winning design of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at 66 Fifth Avenue on 13th Street. The Cooper Union is also located in Greenwich Village, at Astor Place, near St. Mark's Place on the border of the East Village. Pratt Institute established its latest Manhattan campus in an adaptively reused Brunner & Tryon designed loft building on 14th Street, just east of Seventh Avenue. The university campus building expansion was followed by a gentrification process in the 1980s.
The historic Washington Square Park is the center and heart of the neighborhood, but the Village has several other, smaller parks: Father Fagan, Minetta Triangle, Petrosino Square, Little Red Square, and Time Landscape. There are also city playgrounds, including Desalvio, Minetta, Thompson Street, Bleecker Street, Downing Street, Mercer Street, Cpl. John A. Seravelli, and William Passannante Ballfield. Perhaps the most famous, though, is "The Cage", officially known as the West Fourth Street Courts. Sitting on top of the West Fourth Street – Washington Square subway station (A B C D E F M trains) at Sixth Avenue, the courts are easily accessible to basketball and American handball players from all over New York. The Cage has become one of the most important tournament sites for the city-wide "Streetball" amateur basketball tournament. Since 1975 New York University's art collection has been housed at the Grey Art Gallery bordering Washington Square Park at 100 Washington Square East. The Grey Art Gallery is notable for its museum quality exhibitions of contemporary art.
The Village also has a bustling performing arts scene. It is still home to many Off Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway theaters; for instance, Blue Man Group has taken up residence in the Astor Place Theater. The Village Gate (until 1992), the Village Vanguard and The Blue Note are still presenting some of the biggest names in jazz on a regular basis. Other music clubs include The Bitter End, and Lion's Den. The village also has its own orchestra aptly named the Greenwich Village Orchestra. Comedy clubs dot the Village as well, including The Boston and Comedy Cellar, where many American stand-up comedians got their start.
Each year on October 31, it is home to New York's Village Halloween Parade, the largest Halloween event in the country, drawing an audience of two million from throughout the region.
Several publications have offices in the Village, most notably the citywide newsweekly The Village Voice, and the monthly magazines Fortune and American Heritage. The National Audubon Society, having relocated its national headquarters from a mansion in Carnegie Hill to a restored and very green, former industrial building in NoHo, relocated to smaller but even greener LEED certified digs at 225 Varick Street,[32] a short ways down Houston Street from the Film Forum.
Historically, local residents and preservation groups, including the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), have been concerned about development in the Village and have fought to preserve the architectural and historic integrity of the neighborhood. In the 1960s, Margot Gayle led a group of citizens to preserve the Jefferson Market Courthouse (later reused as Jefferson Market Library)[33] while other citizen groups fought to keep traffic out of Washington Square Park[34] and Jane Jacobs, using the Village as an example of a vibrant urban community, advocated to keep it that way.
Since then, preservation has been a part of the Village ethos. Preservation success stories abound in the neighborhood, which was landmarked in 1969 by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Victories for preservationists, often spearheaded by GVSHP, include the preservation of the Greenwich Village waterfront and Meatpacking District; the inclusion of the Far West Village in the Greenwich Village Historic District;[35] the creation of the Weehawken Street Historic District;[36] and the downzoning of the Far West Village.[37] Additionally, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission began the process of landmarking the South Village in June 2009.[38]
More recent and on-going preservation issues in the Village include: New York University's (NYU) expansion into the neighborhood;[39][40] St. Vincent’s Hospital’s rebuilding plans;[41] overdevelopment in the Far West Village;[35] and threats to local theaters,[42] including the Provincetown Playhouse,[43] the Yiddish Art Theater,[44] and the Variety Theater.
Greenwich Village residents are zoned to two elementary schools: PS3 Melser Charrette School and PS41 Greenwich Village School. Residents are zoned to Baruch Middle School 104. Residents apply to various New York City high schools.
Greenwich Village is home to New York University, which owns large sections of the area and most of the buildings around Washington Square Park. To the north is the campus of The New School, which is housed in several buildings that are considered historical landmarks because of their innovative architecture.[51] New School's Sheila Johnson Design Center also doubles as a public art gallery.[52] Cooper Union, one of the most selective engineering, art, and architecture schools in the world, is located in the East Village.
Greenwich Village has long been a popular neighborhood for numerous artists and other notable people.
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Coordinates: 51°28′45″N 0°00′00″E / 51.4791°N 0.0000°E / 51.4791; 0.0000
Royal Greenwich | |
Royal Observatory, Greenwich |
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Royal Greenwich shown within Greater London |
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OS grid reference | TQ395775 |
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London borough | Greenwich |
Ceremonial county | Greater London |
Region | London |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | LONDON |
Postcode district | SE10 |
Dialling code | 020 |
Police | Metropolitan |
Fire | London |
Ambulance | London |
EU Parliament | London |
UK Parliament | Greenwich and Woolwich |
London Assembly | Greenwich and Lewisham |
List of places: UK • England • London |
Greenwich (UK i/ɡrɪnɪdʒ/ GRIN-ij;[1][2][3] US /ɡrɛnɪtʃ/ GREN-ich or /ɡrɛnɪdʒ/ GREN-ij)[4][5][6] is a district of south London, England, located in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and situated 5.5 miles (8.9 km) east south-east of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. The town became the site of a royal palace, the Palace of Placentia from the 15th century, and was the birthplace of many in the House of Tudor, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The palace fell into disrepair during the English Civil War and was rebuilt as the Royal Naval Hospital for Sailors by Sir Christopher Wren and his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor. These buildings became the Royal Naval College in 1873, and they remained an establishment for military education until 1998 when they passed into the hands of the Greenwich Foundation. The historic rooms within these buildings remain open to the public; other buildings are used by University of Greenwich and the Trinity College of Music.
The town became a popular resort in the 17th century and many grand houses were built there, such as Vanbrugh Castle (1717) established on Maze Hill, next to the park. From the Georgian period estates of houses were constructed above the town centre. The maritime connections of Greenwich were celebrated in the 20th century, with the siting of the Cutty Sark and Gipsy Moth IV next to the river front, and the National Maritime Museum in the former buildings of the Royal Hospital School in 1934. Greenwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created.
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So named by Danish settlers, Greenwich (Anglo-Saxon equivalent Grenewic) means the green place on the bay (vig, wich) or near the mouth of a river. (Similarly, Schleswig, Sandwich)[7] The settlement later became known as East Greenwich to distinguish it from West Greenwich or Deptford Strond, the part of Deptford adjacent to the Thames,[8] but the use of East Greenwich to mean the whole of the town of Greenwich died out in the 19th century. However, Greenwich was divided into the two Poor Law Unions of Greenwich East and Greenwich West from the beginning of civil registration in 1837, the boundary running down what is now Greenwich Church Street and Crooms Hill, although more modern references to "East" and "West" Greenwich probably refer to the areas east and west of the Royal Naval College and National Maritime Museum corresponding with the West Greenwich council ward. An article in The Times of 13 October 1967 stated:
Tumuli to the south-west of Flamsteed House,[10] in Greenwich Park, are thought to be early Bronze Age barrows re-used by the Saxons in the 6th century as burial grounds. To the east between the Vanbrugh and Maze Hill Gates is the site of a Roman villa or temple. A small area of red paving tesserae protected by railings marks the spot. It was excavated in 1902 and 300 coins were found dating from the emperors Claudius and Honorius to the 4th century. This was excavated by the Channel 4 programme Time Team in 2000,[11] and further investigations were made by the same group in 2003.[12]
The Roman road from London to Dover, Watling Street crossed the high ground to the south of Greenwich, through Blackheath. This followed the line of an earlier Celtic route from Canterbury to St Albans.[13] As late as Henry V, Greenwich was only a fishing town, with a safe anchorage in the river.[8]
During the reign of Ethelred the Unready, the Danish fleet anchored in the River Thames off Greenwich for over three years, with the army being encamped on the hill above. From here they attacked Kent and, in the year 1012, took the city of Canterbury, making Archbishop Alphege their prisoner for seven months in their camp at Greenwich. They stoned him to death for his refusal to allow his ransom (3,000 pieces of silver) to be paid; and kept his body, until the blossoming of a stick that had been immersed in his blood. For this miracle his body was released to his followers, he achieved sainthood for his martyrdom and, in the 12th century, the parish church was dedicated to him. The present church on the site west of the town centre is St Alfege's Church, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1714 and completed in 1718. Some vestiges of the Danish camps may be traced in the names of Eastcombe and Westcombe, on the borders of nearby Blackheath.[14]
The Domesday Book records the manor of Greenwich as held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux; his lands were seized by the crown in 1082. A royal palace, or hunting lodge, has existed here since before 1300, when Edward I is known to have made offerings at the chapel of the Virgin Mary.[14]
Subsequent monarchs were regular visitors, with Henry IV making his will here, and Henry V granting the manor (for life) to Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, who died at Greenwich in 1417. The palace was created by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Henry V's half-brother and the regent to Henry VI in 1447; enclosing the park and erecting a tower on the spot of the Royal Observatory. It was renamed the Palace of Placentia or Pleasaunce by Henry VI's consort Margaret of Anjou after Humphrey's death. The palace was completed and further enlarged by Edward IV, and in 1466 it was granted to his queen, Elizabeth.[14]
The palace was the principal residence of Henry VII whose sons Henry (later Henry VIII) and Edmund Tudor were born here, and baptised in St Alphege's. Henry favoured Greenwich over nearby Eltham Palace, the former principal royal palace. He extended Greenwich Palace and it became his principal London seat until Whitehall Palace was built in the 1530s. Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves at Greenwich, and both Mary (February 18, 1516) and Elizabeth (September 7, 1533) were born at Greenwich. His son Edward VI also died there at age 15.
The palace of Placentia, in turn, became Elizabeth's favourite summer residence.[14]. Both she and her sister Mary I used the palace extensively, and Elizabeth's Council planned the Spanish Armada campaign there in 1588.
James I carried out the final remodelling work on Greenwich Palace, granting the manor to his wife Queen Anne of Denmark. In 1616 Anne commissioned Inigo Jones to design and build the surviving Queen's House as the final addition to the palace.
Charles I granted the manor to his wife Queen Henrietta Maria, for whom Inigo Jones completed the Queen's House. During the English Civil War, the palace was used as a biscuit factory and prisoner-of-war camp. Then, in the Interregnum, the palace and park were seized to become a 'mansion' for the Lord Protector.
By the time of the Restoration, the Palace of Placentia had fallen into disuse and was pulled down. New buildings began to be established as a grand palace for Charles II, but only the King Charles block was completed. Charles II also redesigned and replanted Greenwich Park and founded and built the Royal Observatory.
James II, as Duke of York and Lord Admiral until 1673, was often at Greenwich with his brother Charles and, according to Samuel Pepys, he proposed the idea of creating a Royal Naval Hospital. This was eventually established at Greenwich by his daughter Mary II, who in 1692-1693 commissioned Christopher Wren to design the Royal Hospital for Seamen (now the Old Royal Naval College). The work was begun under her widower William III in 1696 and completed by Hawksmoor. Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark continued to patronise the project.
George I landed at Greenwich from Hanover on his accession in 1714. His successor George II granted the Royal Hospital for Seamen the forfeited estates of the Jacobite Earl of Derwentwater, which allowed the building to be completed by 1751.
In 1805, George III granted the Queen's House to the Royal Naval Asylum (an orphanage school), which amalgamated in 1821-1825 with the Greenwich Hospital School. Extended with the buildings that now house the National Maritime Museum, it was renamed the Royal Hospital School by Queen Victoria in 1892.
George IV donated nearly 40 paintings to the hospital in 1824, at a stroke creating a gallery in the Painted Hall. These now form the Greenwich Hospital Collection at the National Maritime Museum. Subsequently William IV and Queen Adelaide were both regular donors and visitors to the gallery.
Queen Victoria rarely visited Greenwich but in 1845 her husband Prince Albert personally bought Nelson's Trafalgar coat for the Naval Gallery.
George V and Queen Mary] both supported the creation of the National Maritime Museum, and Mary presented the museum with many items.
George VI, when Duke of York, laid the foundation stone of the new Royal Hospital School when it moved out to Holbrook, Suffolk. In 1937 his first public act as king (three weeks before coronation) was to open the National Maritime Museum in the buildings vacated by the school. George was accompanied by Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth] and Princess Elizabeth.
As Princess Elizabeth, HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (who was created Baron Greenwich on their marriage in 1947) made their first joint visit to Greenwich in 1948 for the Duke to receive the Freedom of the Borough. In the same year, he became trustee of the National Maritime Museum. The Duke was an active trustee for 52 years until 2000, when he became its first patron. The Duke of Edinburgh has also been a patron of the Cutty Sark (which was opened by HM the Queen in 1957) since 1952.
During the Silver Jubilee of 1977, HM the Queen embarked at Greenwich for the Jubilee River Pageant. In 1987 the Queen was aboard the P&O ship Pacific Princess when it moored alongside the Old Royal Naval College for the company's 150th anniversary celebrations.
To mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, it was announced on 5 January 2010 that on 3 February 2012 the London Borough of Greenwich would become the fourth to have Royal Borough status, the others being the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.[15] The status was granted in recognition of the borough's historic links with the Royal Family, the location of the Prime Meridian and its being a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[16]
Greenwich is covered by the Greenwich West and Peninsula wards of the London Borough of Greenwich, which was formed in 1965 by merging the former Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich with that part of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich which lay south of The Thames. Along with Blackheath Westcombe, Charlton, Glyndon, Woolwich Riverside, and Woolwich Common, it elects a Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich and Woolwich; currently the MP is Nick Raynsford.[17]
The town of Greenwich is built on a broad platform to the south of the outside of a broad meander in the River Thames, with a safe deep water anchorage lying in the river. To the south, the land rises steeply, 100 feet (30 m) through Greenwich Park to the town of Blackheath. The higher areas consist of a sedimentary layer of gravelly soils, known as the Blackheath Beds, that spread through much of the south-east over a chalk outcrop—with sands, loam and seams of clay at the lower levels by the river.
Greenwich is bordered by Deptford Creek and Deptford to the west; the former industrial centre of the Greenwich Peninsula and the residential area of Westcombe Park to the east; the River Thames to the north; and the A2 and Blackheath to the south.
This data was collected between 1971 and 2000 at the weather station situated in Greenwich:
Climate data for London (Greenwich) | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 14.0 (57.2) |
19.7 (67.5) |
21.0 (69.8) |
26.9 (80.4) |
31.0 (87.8) |
35.0 (95.0) |
35.5 (95.9) |
37.9 (100.2) |
30.0 (86.0) |
28.8 (83.8) |
19.0 (66.2) |
15.0 (59.0) |
37.9 (100.2) |
Average high °C (°F) | 8.1 (46.6) |
8.4 (47.1) |
11.4 (52.5) |
14.2 (57.6) |
17.9 (64.2) |
21.1 (70.0) |
23.5 (74.3) |
23.2 (73.8) |
19.9 (67.8) |
15.6 (60.1) |
11.2 (52.2) |
8.3 (46.9) |
15.2 (59.4) |
Average low °C (°F) | 2.3 (36.1) |
2.1 (35.8) |
3.9 (39.0) |
5.5 (41.9) |
8.7 (47.7) |
11.7 (53.1) |
13.9 (57.0) |
13.7 (56.7) |
11.4 (52.5) |
8.4 (47.1) |
4.9 (40.8) |
2.7 (36.9) |
7.4 (45.3) |
Record low °C (°F) | −10 (14.0) |
−9 (15.8) |
−8 (17.6) |
−2 (28.4) |
−1 (30.2) |
5.0 (41.0) |
7.0 (44.6) |
6.0 (42.8) |
3.0 (37.4) |
−4 (24.8) |
−5 (23.0) |
−7 (19.4) |
−10 (14.0) |
Precipitation mm (inches) | 55.2 (2.173) |
40.8 (1.606) |
41.6 (1.638) |
43.6 (1.717) |
49.3 (1.941) |
44.9 (1.768) |
44.5 (1.752) |
49.5 (1.949) |
49.1 (1.933) |
68.5 (2.697) |
59.0 (2.323) |
55.0 (2.165) |
601.5 (23.681) |
Snowfall cm (inches) | 24.4 (9.61) |
10.8 (4.25) |
2.7 (1.06) |
0.4 (0.16) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0.2 (0.08) |
8.2 (3.23) |
46.7 (18.39) |
% humidity | 91 | 89 | 91 | 90 | 92 | 92 | 93 | 95 | 96 | 95 | 93 | 91 | 92.3 |
Avg. rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 10.9 | 8.1 | 9.8 | 9.3 | 8.5 | 8.4 | 7.0 | 7.2 | 8.7 | 9.3 | 9.3 | 10.1 | 106.6 |
Avg. snowy days | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 16 |
Mean monthly sunshine hours | 45.9 | 66.1 | 103.2 | 147.0 | 185.4 | 180.6 | 190.3 | 194.4 | 139.2 | 109.7 | 60.6 | 37.8 | 1,460.2 |
Source no. 1: Record highs and lows from BBC Weather,[18] except August and February maximum from Met Office[19] [20] | |||||||||||||
Source no. 2: All other data from Met Office,[21] except for humidity and snow data which are from NOAA[22] |
The Cutty Sark (a clipper ship) has been preserved in a dry dock by the river. A major fire in May 2007 destroyed a part of the ship, although much had already been removed for restoration. Nearby for many years was also displayed Gipsy Moth IV, the 54 feet (16.5 m) yacht sailed by Sir Francis Chichester in his single-handed, 226-day circumnavigation of the globe during 1966–67. In 2004, Gipsy Moth IV was removed from Greenwich, and after restoration work completed a second circumnavigation in May 2007. On the riverside in front of the north-west corner of the Hospital is an obelisk erected in memory of Arctic explorer Joseph René Bellot.
Near the Cutty Sark site, a circular building contains the entrance to the Greenwich foot tunnel, opened on 4 August 1902. This connects Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs on the northern side of the River Thames. The north exit of the tunnel is at Island Gardens,[23] from where the famous view of Greenwich Hospital painted by Canaletto can be seen.
Rowing has been part of life on the river at Greenwich for hundreds of years and the first Greenwich Regatta was held in 1785. The annual Great River Race along the Thames Tideway finishes at the Cutty Sark. The nearby Trafalgar Rowing Centre in Crane Street is home to Curlew Rowing Club and Globe Rowing Club.
The Old Royal Naval College is Sir Christopher Wren's domed masterpiece at the centre of the heritage site. The site is administered by the Greenwich Foundation and several of the buildings are let to the University of Greenwich and one, the King Charles block, to Trinity College of Music. Within the complex is the former college dining room, the Painted Hall, this was painted by James Thornhill, and the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul, with an interior designed by James 'Athenian' Stuart. The Naval College had a training reactor, the JASON reactor, within the King William building that was operational between 1962 and 1996. The reactor was decommissioned and removed in 1999.[24]
To the east of the Naval College is the Trinity Hospital almshouse, founded in 1613, the oldest surviving building in the town centre.[25] This is next to the massive brick walls and the landing stage of Greenwich Power Station. Built between 1902 and 1910 as a coal-fired station to supply power to London's tram system, and later the London underground, it is now oil- and gas-powered and serves as a backup station for London Underground.[26] East Greenwich also has a small park, East Greenwich Pleasaunce, which was formerly the burial ground of Greenwich Hospital.
The O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome) was built on part of the site of East Greenwich Gas Works, a disused British Gas site on the Greenwich Peninsula.[27] It is next to North Greenwich tube station, about 3 miles (4.8 km) east from the Greenwich town centre, North West of Charlton. The Greenwich Millennium Village is a new urban regeneration development to the south of the Dome. Enderby's Wharf is a site associated with submarine cable manufacture for over 150 years.
Behind the former Naval College is the National Maritime Museum housed in buildings forming another symmetrical group and grand arcade around the Queen's House, designed by Inigo Jones. Continuing to the south, Greenwich Park is a Royal Park of 183 acres (0.7 km2), laid out in the 17th century and formed from the hunting grounds of the Royal Palace of Placentia.[28]
The park rises towards Blackheath and at the top of this hill is a statue of James Wolfe, commander of the British expedition to capture Quebec,[29] nearby a major group of buildings within the park is the former Royal Observatory, Greenwich and the Prime Meridian passes through the building. Greenwich Mean Time was at one time based on the time observations made at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, before being superseded by Coordinated Universal Time. While there is no longer a working astronomical observatory at Greenwich, a ball still drops daily to mark the exact moment of 1 p.m., and there is a museum of astronomical and navigational tools, particularly John Harrison's marine chronometers.[30]
The Ranger's House lies at the Blackheath end of the park and houses the Wernher Collection of art,[31] and many fine houses, including Vanbrugh's house lie on Maze Hill, on the western edge of the park.
Georgian and Victorian architecture dominates in the town centre which spreads to the west of the park and Royal Naval College. Much of this forms a one-way system around a covered market, Greenwich Market and the arthouse Greenwich Cinema. Up the hill from the centre, there are many streets of Georgian houses, including the Fan Museum, on Croom's Hill. Nearby at the junction of Croom's Hill with Nevada Street, is Greenwich Theatre, formerly Crowder's Music Hall – one of two Greenwich theatres, the other being the Greenwich Playhouse.
There has been a market at Greenwich since the 14th century, but the history of the present market dates from 1700 when a charter to run two markets, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, was assigned by Lord Romney (Henry, Earl of Romney[14]) to the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital for 1000 years.[32]
The market is part of "the Island site", bounded by College Approach, Greenwich Church Street, King William Walk and Nelson Road, near the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory. The buildings surrounding the market are Grade 2 listed and were established in 1827–1833 under the direction of Joseph Kay.[citation needed] The market roof dates from 1902–08. Later significant development occurred in 1958–60 and during the 1980s.
Greenwich Market trades five days a week, being closed on Monday and Tuesday, but adjacent shops and restaurants remain open seven days a week. Wednesday is a food and homewares market day; antiques and collectibles are the speciality on Thursdays and Fridays. The landowner, Greenwich Hospital, is planning to redevelop and "regenerate" the facility in 2013.[33]
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. It is commonly used in practice to refer to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) when this is viewed as a time zone, especially by bodies connected with the United Kingdom, such as the BBC World Service,[34] the Royal Navy, the Met Office and others, although strictly UTC is an atomic time scale which only approximates GMT with a tolerance of 0.9 second. It is also used to refer to Universal Time (UT), which is a standard astronomical concept used in many technical fields and is referred to by the phrase Zulu time.
As the United Kingdom grew into an advanced maritime nation, British mariners kept at least one chronometer on GMT in order to calculate their longitude from the Greenwich meridian, which was by convention considered to have longitude zero degrees (this convention was internationally adopted in the International Meridian Conference of 1884). Note that the synchronization of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time itself, which was still solar time. But this practice, combined with mariners from other nations drawing from Nevil Maskelyne's method of lunar distances based on observations at Greenwich, eventually led to GMT being used worldwide as a reference time independent of location. Most time zones were based upon this reference as a number of hours and half-hours "ahead of GMT" or "behind GMT".
Maritime Greenwich * | |
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Country | United Kingdom |
Type | Cultural |
Criteria | i, ii, iv, vi |
Reference | 795 |
Region ** | Europe and North America |
Inscription history | |
Inscription | 1997 (21st Session) |
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List ** Region as classified by UNESCO |
In 1997, Maritime Greenwich was added to the list of World Heritage Sites, for the concentration and quality of buildings of historic and architectural interest. These can be divided into the group of buildings along the riverfront, Greenwich Park and the Georgian and Victorian town centre. In recognition of the suburb's astronomical links, Asteroid 2830 has been named 'Greenwich'.[35]
The Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre provides an introduction to the history and attractions in the Greenwich World Heritage Site. It is located in the Pepys Buildings near to the Cutty Sark within the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, (formerly Greenwich Hospital). The centre opened in March, 2010, and admission is free.[36]
The Centre explains the history of Greenwich as a royal residence and a maritime centre. Exhibits include:
Greenwich Heritage Centre is a museum and local history resource run by the London Borough of Greenwich,[37] and is based in Artillery Square, in the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, south-east London.[38] It was established in October 2003, combining materials from the Greenwich Borough Museum and the local history library (previously at Woodlands House in Westcombe Park).[39]
The University of Greenwich main campus is located in the distinctive buildings of the former Royal Naval College. The university has other campuses at Avery Hill in Eltham and at Medway. Near the Greenwich campus, the Trinity College of Music is housed in the buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital.
Two railway lines cross Greenwich:[40] the Greenwich Line, which runs west to east and follows the route of the London and Greenwich Railway, which was the first railway line in London,[41][42] and links the South Eastern Main Line with the North Kent Line at Charlton; and the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), which runs north to south. Both lines are served by Greenwich station; with the DLR having a separate station at Cutty Sark DLR Station near the river, and the Greenwich Line having Maze Hill railway station to the east, on the boundary with Westcombe Park. DLR trains run from Lewisham to Bank and Stratford via Canary Wharf.[43] The Greenwich Line carries trains from London Charing Cross and London Cannon Street in central London to Dartford in Kent, with a limited service to Gravesend, Kent and Gillingham, Medway. There are no London Underground stations in Greenwich itself – North Greenwich tube station on the Peninsula is the nearest tube station.
There are a number of river boat services running from Greenwich Pier, managed by London River Services. The main services include the Thames commuter catamaran service run by Thames Clipper from Embankment, via Tower Millennium Pier, Canary Wharf and on to the O2 and Woolwich Arsenal Pier;[44] the Wesminster-Greenwich cruise service by Thames River Services; and the City Cruises tourist cruise via Westminster, Waterloo and Tower piers.[45]
The Thames Path National Trail runs along the riverside.[46] The Greenwich foot tunnel provides pedestrian access to the southern end of the Isle of Dogs, across the river Thames.
The National Cycle Network Route 1 includes the foot tunnel, though cycling is not permitted in the tunnel itself.[47]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Greenwich |
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Dave Van Ronk | |
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Dave Van Ronk at 1963 Newport Folk Festival |
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Background information | |
Born | (1936-06-30)June 30, 1936 Brooklyn, New York |
Died | February 10, 2002(2002-02-10) (aged 65) |
Genres | Folk, ragtime |
Occupations | Singer-songwriter |
Instruments | Guitar |
Years active | 1960s-2002 |
Labels | Folkways |
Dave Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002) was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" .
He was an important figure in the acoustic folk revival of the 1960s. His work ranged from old English ballads to Bertolt Brecht, blues, gospel, rock, New Orleans jazz, and swing. He was also known for performing instrumental ragtime guitar music, especially his transcription of St. Louis Tickle and Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag.
Dave Van Ronk was regarded as the friendly uncle of Greenwich Village, presiding over the coffeehouse folk culture and acting as a friend to many up and coming artists, inspiring, aiding and promoting them. Folk performers whom he befriended included Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Patrick Sky, Phil Ochs, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Guthrie Thomas, and Joni Mitchell.
Van Ronk received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), in December 1997.
Van Ronk died of cardio-pulmonary failure while undergoing post-operative treatment for colon cancer in a New York hospital.[1]
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Van Ronk moved from Brooklyn to Queens in 1951 and began attending Holy Child Catholic High School (Queens, New York). He had been performing in a barbershop quartet since 1949, but left before finishing high school, and spent the next few years bumming around lower Manhattan, except for shipping out twice with the Merchant Marine.
His first professional gigs were with various traditional jazz bands around the New York area, of which he later observed: "We wanted to play traditional jazz in the worst way...and we did!" The jazz revival did not take off though, and Van Ronk turned to performing blues music he had stumbled across and enjoyed years earlier, by artists like Furry Lewis and Mississippi John Hurt. Van Ronk was not the first white musician to perform African-American blues, but became noted for his interpretation of it in its original context. By about 1958, he was firmly committed to the folk-blues style, accompanying himself with his own acoustic guitar. He performed blues, jazz and folk music, occasionally writing his own songs but generally arranging the work of earlier artists and his folk revival peers.
He became noted both for his large physical stature and his expansive charisma, which bespoke an intellectual, cultured gentleman of many talents. Among his many interests: cooking, science fiction (he was active for some time in science fiction fandom, referring to it as "mind rot",[2] and contributed to fanzines), world history, and politics. During the 1960s he supported radical left-wing political causes and was a member of the Libertarian League and the Trotskyist American Committee for the Fourth International (ACFI, later renamed the Workers League,[3] predecessor to the Socialist Equality Party).[4] Attracted to the commotion from a neighboring bar, and no stranger to police violence, he was at the famous Stonewall Riots during which he was grabbed by police, arrested, briefly jailed and charged with felony assault on a police officer.[5] In 1974, he appeared at "An Evening For Salvador Allende", a concert organized by Phil Ochs, alongside other performers such as his old friend Bob Dylan, to protest the overthrow of the democratic socialist government of Chile and to aid refugees from the U.S.-backed military junta led by Augusto Pinochet. After Ochs' suicide in 1976, Van Ronk joined the many performers who played at Phil's memorial concert in the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden, playing his bluesy version of the traditional folk ballad "He Was A Friend Of Mine".[6]
In 2000, he performed at Blind Willie's in Atlanta, clothed in garish Hawaiian garb, speaking fondly of his impending return to Greenwich Village. He reminisced over tunes like Good Ol Wagon, a song teasing a worn-out lover, which he ruefully remarked had seemed humorous to him back in 1962. He was married to Terri Thal in the 1960s, lived for many years with Joanne Grace, then married Andrea Vuocolo, with whom he spent the rest of his life. He continued to perform for four decades and gave his last concert just a few months before his death. He found it amusing to be called "a legend in his own time".
Van Ronk died before completing work on his memoirs, which were finished by his collaborator, Elijah Wald, and published in 2005 as The Mayor Of MacDougal Street.
In 2004, a section of Sheridan Square, where Barrow Street meets Washington Place, was renamed Dave Van Ronk Street in his memory.[7]
Van Ronk has been described[by whom?] as an irreverent and incomparable guitar artist and interpreter of black blues and folk, with an uncannily precise ability at improvisation. Joni Mitchell often said that his rendition of her song "Both Sides Now" (which he called Clouds) was the finest ever.
He is perhaps underestimated as a musician and blues guitarist. His guitar work is noteworthy for both syncopation and precision. In its simplest form, it shows similarities to Mississippi John Hurt's, but Van Ronk's main influence was the Reverend Gary Davis, who conceived the guitar as "a piano around his neck". Van Ronk took this pianistic approach, and added a harmonic sophistication adapted from the band voicings of Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington. He ranks high in bringing blues style to Greenwich Village during the 1960s, as well as introducing the folk world to the complex harmonies of Kurt Weill in his many Brecht-Weill interpretations, and being one of the very few hardcore traditional revivalists to move with the times, bringing old blues and ballads together with the new sounds of Dylan, Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. During this crucial period, he performed with the likes of Bob Dylan and spent many years teaching guitar in Greenwich Village, including to Christine Lavin, David Massengill, Terre Roche and Suzzy Roche. He influenced his protégé Danny Kalb and The Blues Project. The Japanese singer Masato Tomobe, American pop-folk singer Geoff Thais and the musician and writer Elijah Wald learned from him as well. Known for making interesting and memorable observations he once said, "Painting is all about space, and music is all about time."
Thanks to what he had learned from Davis, Van Ronk was among the first to adapt traditional jazz and ragtime to the solo acoustic guitar. His guitar arrangements of such ragtime hits as "St. Louis Tickle", "The Entertainer", "The Pearls" and "Maple Leaf Rag" continue to frustrate and challenge aspiring guitar players. He also did fine compositions of his own in the classic styles, such as "Antelope Rag".
His song "Last Call" is the source of the title of Lawrence Block's book When the Sacred Ginmill Closes.
The Coen brothers are writing a screenplay for a film based on Van Ronk's life called Inside Llewyn Davis.[8]
Van Ronk refused for many years to fly and never learned to drive (he would use trains or buses or, when possible, recruit a girlfriend or young musician as his driver), and he declined to ever move from Greenwich Village for any extended period of time (having stayed in California for a short time in the 1960s).[9] Van Ronk's trademark stoneware jug of Tullamore Dew was frequently seen on stage next to him in his early days.
Robert Shelton described Van Ronk as, "the musical mayor of MacDougal Street, a tall, garrulous hairy man of three quarters, or, more accurately, three fifths Irish descent. Topped by light brownish hair and a leonine beard, which he smoothed down several times a minute, he resembled an unmade bed strewn with books, record jackets, pipes, empty whiskey bottles, lines from obscure poets, finger picks, and broken guitar strings. He was Bob [Dylan]'s first New York guru. Van Ronk was a walking museum of the blues. Through an early interest in jazz, he had gravitated toward black music - its jazz pole, its jug-band and ragtime center, its blues bedrock... his manner was rough and testy, disguising a warm, sensitive core. Van Ronk retold the blues intimately... for a time, his most dedicated follower was Dylan."
Persondata | |
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Name | Van Ronk, Dave |
Alternative names | |
Short description | |
Date of birth | June 30, 1936 |
Place of birth | Brooklyn, New York |
Date of death | February 10, 2002 |
Place of death |
Eric Roberts | |
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Born | Eric Anthony Roberts (1956-04-18) April 18, 1956 (age 56) Biloxi, Mississippi, U.S. |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1977–present |
Spouse | Eliza Garrett (m. 1992) «start: (1992)»"Marriage: Eliza Garrett to Eric Roberts" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Eric_Roberts) |
Children | Emma Roberts |
Family | Julia Roberts (sister), Lisa Roberts Gillan (sister) |
Eric Anthony Roberts (born April 18, 1956) is an American actor. His career began with King of the Gypsies (1978), earning a Golden Globe nomination for best actor debut. He starred as the protagonist in the 1980 dramatisation of Willa Cather's 1905 short story, Paul's Case. He earned both a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in Runaway Train (1985). Through the 1990s and 2000s he maintained dramatic film and TV-movie roles while appearing in TV series. His television work includes three seasons with the sitcom Less than Perfect and a recurring role on the NBC drama Heroes. His sisters Julia Roberts and Lisa Roberts Gillan, and daughter Emma Roberts, are also actors.
Contents |
Eric got his start on the now-defunct NBC daytime soap opera Another World originating the role of Ted Bancroft from February 14, 1977, to June 17, 1977.
Roberts received Golden Globe nominations for his early starring roles in King of the Gypsies (1978) and Star 80 (1983). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1985 for his role as the escaped convict Buck in the film Runaway Train. In 1987, he won the Theatre World Award for his Broadway debut performance in Burn This.
Roberts's other starring roles included Raggedy Man (1981), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), The Coca-Cola Kid (1985), Nobody's Fool (1986), Best of the Best (1989), By the Sword (1991), Best of the Best 2 (1993), The Immortals (1995), La Cucaracha (1998), Purgatory (1999), and Stiletto Dance (2001). He also had major supporting roles in Final Analysis (1992), The Specialist (1994), and the film Shannon's Rainbow (2009). He played the Archangel Michael in The Prophecy II (1997).
In 1996, he appeared in the Doctor Who Television film in the role of the fourth Master. As of 2011, he is the only American actor to play the role. When SFX listed previous Masters in Doctor Who, the magazine said of Roberts: "Out-acted by a CGI snake in the same production."
His recent projects include A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, DOA: Dead or Alive and Royal Kill. He appeared in The Dark Knight as Sal Maroni, a Gotham City Mafia boss who hires The Joker to kill the titular superhero and a renegade mob accountant.[1]
Roberts co-starred on the ABC situation comedy Less than Perfect. He appeared in an episode of CSI: Miami as Ken Kramer, a murderer on death row convicted of killing a young couple. Another notable TV appearance was the episode "Victims" of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit where he played Sam Winfield, a former cop turned vigilante. In the same year, he was also guest starred on The L Word as Gabriel McCutcheon, the father of Shane McCutcheon. In early January 2007, Roberts starred in the two-part mini-series Pandemic as the mayor of Los Angeles.
Roberts voiced the Superman villain Mongul in the animated series Justice League and reprised his role in Justice League Unlimited in the episode "For the Man Who Has Everything". He performed the voice of Dark Danny in Nickelodeon's Danny Phantom. He appeared in the first season of Heroes as Thompson, an associate of Mr. Bennet.[2] He then reprised the role in the third-season episode "Villains" and in the fourth-season "The Wall".
Roberts appeared in The Killers music video for their song "Mr. Brightside" as well as in the music videos for Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" and "It's Like That". In 2006, he appeared in the video for Akon's "Smack That", featuring Eminem. In 2007, he appeared in the video for Godhead's "Hey You". He appeared as a panelist on the television game show Hollywood Squares. In February 2009, Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke, who starred with Roberts in The Pope of Greenwich Village, said he hoped that Roberts would soon be offered a role which would resurrect his career in the way that The Wrestler rejuvenated Rourke's.[3]
He portrayed Seth Blanchard on the second season of the Starz series, Crash, from 2009. In 2009, Roberts appeared as himself in "Tree Trippers", a season five episode of Entourage. He is portrayed as a mushroom and drug fanatic as he gives the boys mushrooms and joins them to Joshua Tree National Park to trip as they contemplate Vince's next movie decision. It was announced in June 2010 that he would be joining the cast of the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless starting July 12.[4] In 2010, he appeared in the action film The Expendables. Later that year, he appeared alongside Steve Austin and Gary Daniels, his co-stars from The Expendables, in the 2010 action film Hunt to Kill. December 2010 saw the premiere of the fourth season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which documented Roberts' struggle with dependancy on medical marijuana. Roberts starred in the 2012 mystery thriller Deadline, playing the role of politically-incorrect reporter Ronnie Bullock.
Roberts' daughter Emma Roberts, with his then-girlfriend Kelly Cunningham, was born on February 10, 1991. Emma eventually became an actress as well, making her film debut at age 9 in the 2001 drama Blow. After Roberts' relationship with Cunningham, he married Eliza Garrett in 1992. His stepson, Keaton Simons, is a singer-songwriter and his stepdaughter, Morgan Simons, is a chef.[5]
On January 12, 2001, Roberts visited The Howard Stern Radio Show with his wife during a segment called "The Gossip Game" with Mike Walker of the National Enquirer. He confirmed that he and his sister Julia Roberts had been estranged for several years. The source of the estrangement had been his past drug abuse and her siding with his ex-girlfriend over the custody of his daughter Emma Roberts. In 2004, he told People magazine that he and his sister reconciled when he visited her in the hospital after she gave birth to twins.[6]
In 1987, Roberts was arrested for possession of cocaine and marijuana and resisting arrest after he tried to assault a New York police officer.[7] He spent 36 hours in jail, pleaded guilty to harassment, and had all other charges dropped.[8]
In February 1995, Roberts was arrested for shoving his wife, Eliza Garrett, into a wall.[7] He subsequently announced that he was giving up drug use entirely.[8]
Roberts appeared as a cast member in the fourth season of the Vh1 reality television series Celebrity Rehab, for a dependency on medical marijuana.[9] His wife, Eliza and his stepson, Keaton Simons, appeared in Episode 6 to discuss the effects of his addiction on their lives.[10]
Roberts is a vegan and supporter of animal rights.[11][12][13][14]
An episode of the satiric cartoon series South Park featured Roberts as a star in a re-enactment of America's Most Wanted. He plays the genetically engineered half-man, half-monkey sidekick of the character Mephisto. The portrayal is less than kind, depicting Roberts as a washed-up overactor. During the re-enactment's taping, a snowstorm forces a group of characters to resort to cannibalism, and they quickly decide on Roberts because "nobody gives a shit about Eric Roberts".
He was also name-checked in an episode of Seinfeld; after giving away the ending of the film, Kramer tells George that Roberts' performance as the husband in the film The Other Side of Darkness was "unforgettable".
He was portrayed as a clay figure on MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch where he fought alongside his sister, Julia, against Donny Osmond and Marie Osmond.
Roberts was mentioned by Pearl Forrester and Leonard Maltin in Mystery Science Theater 3000 - in the Gorgo episode (episode 9, season 9) – as the perfect companion to Mickey Rourke for producing the "worst movie ever made."
Year | Film | Role | Other notes | |
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1978 | King of the Gypsies | Dave | Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Acting Debut - Male | |
1980 | Paul's Case | Paul | ||
1981 | Raggedy Man | Teddy | ||
1983 | Star 80 | Paul Snider | Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama |
|
1983 | Miss Lonelyhearts | Miss Lonelyhearts | Television film | |
1984 | The Pope of Greenwich Village | Paulie | ||
1985 | Coca-Cola Kid, TheThe Coca-Cola Kid | Becker | ||
1986 | Runaway Train | Buck | Nominated: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture |
|
1986 | Slow Burn | Jacob Asch | Television film | |
1986 | Nobody's Fool | Riley | ||
1988 | To Heal a Nation | Jan Scruggs, with Glynnis O'Connor as Becky Scruggs, and Marshall Colt as Jack Wheeler | Television film | |
1989 | Best of the Best | Alex Grady | ||
1989 | Blood Red | Marco Collogero | Filmed in 1986, but released only three years later.[15][16] Noteworthy for featuring Julia Roberts (Eric's sister) in her film debut.[17][18] |
|
1989 | Rude Awakening | Fred | ||
1990 | Ambulance, TheThe Ambulance | Josh Baker | ||
1990 | Lost Capone, TheThe Lost Capone | Al Capone | Television film | |
1990 | Descending Angel | Michael Rossi | Television film | |
1991 | Vendetta: Secrets of a Mafia Bride | Sean McLeary | Television film | |
1991 | Lonely Hearts | Frank | ||
1991 | By the Sword | Alexander Villard | ||
1992 | Fugitive Among Us | Cal Harper | Television film | |
1992 | Final Analysis | Jimmy Evans | ||
1993 | Best of the Best 2 | Alex Grady | ||
1993 | Love Honor & Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage | Joe Bonanno Jr. | Television film | |
1993 | Voyage | Gil Freeland | Television film | |
1993 | Love, Cheat & Steal | Reno Adams | ||
1994 | Babyfever | Anthony | ||
1994 | Freefall | Grant Orion | ||
1994 | Love Is a Gun | Jack Hart | ||
1994 | Sensation | Dr. Ian Burton | ||
1994 | Specialist, TheThe Specialist | Tomas Leon | ||
1994 | Hard Truth, TheThe Hard Truth | Dr. Chandler Etheridge | ||
1995 | Nature of the Beast, TheThe Nature of the Beast | Adrian | ||
1995 | Immortals, TheThe Immortals | Jack | ||
1995 | Saved by the Light | Dannion Brinkley | Television film | |
1996 | Power 98 | Karlin Pickett | ||
1996 | Grave, TheThe Grave | Cass | ||
1996 | It's My Party | Nick Stark | ||
1996 | Doctor Who | The Master/Bruce | Television film | |
1996 | Heaven's Prisoners | Bubba Rocque | ||
1996 | Cable Guy, TheThe Cable Guy | Himself | ||
1996 | Dark Angel | Walter D'Arcangelo | Television film | |
1996 | American Strays | Martin | ||
1996 | Glass Cage, TheThe Glass Cage | Montrachet | ||
1996 | Past Perfect | Dylan Cooper | ||
1996 | Drew Carey Show, TheThe Drew Carey Show | Steven | Television episode "Drew's Other Man" | |
1996 | In Cold Blood | Perry Smith | Television miniseries Nominated: Satellite Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film |
|
1996 | Public Enemies | Arthur Danlop | Television film | |
1997 | Frasier | Chet | Television episode, voice role "Roz's Krantz & Gouldenstein Are Dead" | |
1997 | Odyssey, TheThe Odyssey | Eurymachus | Television miniseries | |
1997 | Most Wanted | Assistant Deputy Director Spencer | ||
1997 | Oz | Richard L'Italien | Television episode "Capital P" | |
1997 | T.N.T. | Russo | ||
1997-98 | C-16: FBI | John Olansky | Television series (13 episodes) | |
1998 | Prophecy II, TheThe Prophecy II | Michael | ||
1998 | Shadow Men, TheThe Shadow Men | Bob Wilson | ||
1998 | False Pretense | Henry Smolensky | also known as Dead End | |
1998 | Cucaracha, LaLa Cucaracha | Walter Pool | ||
1999 | Purgatory | Blackjack Britton | Television film | |
1999 | BitterSweet | Mr. Venti | ||
1999 | Lansky | Ben Siegel (age 40) | Television film | |
1999 | Touched by an Angel | Nick Stratton | Television episode "Made in the U.S.A" | |
1999 | Restraining Order | Robert Woodfield | ||
1999 | Wildflowers | Jacob | ||
1999 | Spawn | Petey | Television episode; voice role "The Mindkiller" | |
1999 | Facade | Colin Wentworth | ||
1999 | Two Shades of Blue | Calvin Stasi | ||
1999 | Heaven's Fire | Dean McConnell | Television film | |
1999 | Hitman's Run | Tony Lazorka/John Dugan | ||
1999 | Hunger, TheThe Hunger | Jean | Television episode "The Dream Sentinel" | |
2000 | Beatnicks, TheThe Beatnicks | Mack Drake | ||
2000 | Sanctimony | Lieutenant | Television film | |
2000 | No Alibi | Victor Haddock/Stanley Joiner | ||
2000 | Luck of the Draw | Carlo | ||
2000 | Alternate, TheThe Alternate | The Replacement | ||
2000 | Falcone | Raymond 'The Madman' Ricci | Television series (4 episodes) | |
2000 | Cecil B. DeMented | Honey's Ex | ||
2000 | Tripfall | Mr. Eddie | ||
2000 | Race Against Time | James Gabriel | Television film | |
2000 | King's Guard, TheThe King's Guard | Augustus Talbert | ||
2000 | Mercy Streets | Rome | ||
2001 | Strange Frequency | Bob Henry | ||
2001 | King of Queens, TheThe King of Queens | Strohmeyer | Television episode "Paint Misbehavin" | |
2001 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Sam Winfield | Television episode "Victims" | |
2001 | Mindstorm | David Mendez | ||
2001 | Stiletto Dance | Kit Adrian | Television film | |
2001 | Fast Sofa | Robinson | ||
2001 | Walking Shadow | Police Chief DeSpain | Television film | |
2001 | Frozen in Fear | Sean | Television film | |
2001 | Raptor | Sheriff Jim Tanner | ||
2001 | Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534 | First Officer Mike Hogan | Television film | |
2001 | Con Games | Officer Hopkins | ||
2002 | Endangered Species | Police Lt. Mike 'Sully' Sullivan | ||
2002 | Roughing It | The Foreman | Television film | |
2002 | Wrong Number | Josh Grey | ||
2002 | Spun | The Man | ||
2002 | Breakaway | Jimmy Scalzetti | ||
2002 | Wolves of Wall Street | Dyson Keller | ||
2002-05 | Less than Perfect | Will Butler | Television (59 episodes) Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy |
|
2002 | Justice League and Justice League Unlimited | Mongul (voice) | Television (3 episodes) | |
2003 | Intoxicating | Teddy | ||
2003 | National Security | Nash | ||
2003 | Long Ride Home, TheThe Long Ride Home | Sheriff Hank Bowman | ||
2003 | L.A. Confidential | Pierce Patchett | TV pilot | |
2004 | Killer Weekend | Jack Talbot | ||
2004 | Miss Cast Away | Maximus Powers | ||
2004 | Six: The Mark Unleashed | Dallas | ||
2004 | Border Blues | Coyote Larry | ||
2005 | Final Approach | Coach Davis | ||
2005 | Confessions of an Action Star | Police Chief | also known as Sledge: The Untold Story | |
2005 | Break a Leg | Michael Richard Lange | ||
2005 | Graves End | Tarkington Alexander Graves | ||
2005 | Danny Phantom | Dark Danny (voice) | ||
2005 | CSI: Miami | Ken Kramer | Television episode "Whacked" | |
2005 | Civilization of Maxwell Bright, TheThe Civilization of Maxwell Bright | Arlis | ||
2006 | 8 of Diamonds | Charlie Klamanski | ||
2006 | Phat Girlz | Robert Myer | ||
2006 | Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, AA Guide to Recognizing Your Saints | Older Antonio | ||
2006 | Hollywood Dreams | Thomas Kurt | ||
2006 | One Way | Nick Swell | ||
2006 | DOA: Dead or Alive | Donovan | ||
2006-07 | L Word, TheThe L Word | Gabriel McCutcheon | Television (3 episodes) | |
2006 | Fatal Desire | Joe | Television film | |
2006 | Aurora | Mr. Brown | ||
2007 | Pandemic | Mayor Dalesandro | Television film | |
2007 | Heroes | Agent Thompson | Television (8 episodes) | |
2008 | Light Years Away | Dr. Howard Melvin | ||
2008 | Witless Protection | Wilford Duvall | ||
2008 | Fear Itself | Harry Siegal/Harry Bender | Television episode "Spooked" | |
2008 | Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Roy Hubert | Television episode "Betrayed" | |
2008 | Dark Honeymoon | L.A. Guy | ||
2008 | Dark Knight, TheThe Dark Knight | Salvatore Maroni | ||
2008 | Depth Charge | Commander Krieg | Television film | |
2008 | Cleaner, TheThe Cleaner | Ray Crin | Television episode "Here Comes the Boom" | |
2008 | Entourage | Himself | Television episode "Tree Trippers" | |
2008 | Cyclops | Emperor Tiberius | Television film | |
2009 | In the Blink of an Eye | Captain Jones | ||
2009 | Steam Experiment, TheThe Steam Experiment | Grant | ||
2009 | Rock Slyde | Jake the Deliveryman | ||
2009 | Royal Kill | Dad | ||
2009 | Shannon's Rainbow | Mitchell Prescott | ||
2009 | Edgar Allan Poe's Ligeia | Vaslov | ||
2009 | Whole Truth, TheThe Whole Truth | Yaro Maroslav | ||
2009 | Butcher, TheThe Butcher | Merle Hench | ||
2009 | Project Solitude | John Sola | ||
2009 | Crash | Seth Blanchard | Television (13 episodes) | |
2010 | Crimes of the Past | Robert Byrne | ||
2010 | Westbrick Murders | John | ||
2010 | Expendables, TheThe Expendables | James Munroe | ||
2010 | Sharktopus | Dr. Nathan Sands | Television film | |
2010 | Enemies Among Us | Cobbs | ||
2010 | Chuck | Packard | Television episode "Chuck Versus the Couch Lock" | |
2010 | Hunt to Kill | Lee Davis | ||
2010 | First Dog | President of the United States | ||
2011 | Silver Case | Senator | ||
2011 | Spreading Darkness | Stu Undercoffler | ||
2011 | Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior | Andy Armus | Television episode "The Time Is Now" | |
2011 | Chillerama | General Bukkake | Segment "Wadzilla"[19] | |
2011 | Dante's Inferno Animated | Dante | ||
2011 | Lip Service | Mr. Esposito | ||
2012 | Deadline | Ronnie Bullock | ||
2012 | The Finder | Uncle Shad | ||
2012 | The Dead Want Women | } |
Persondata | |
---|---|
Name | Roberts, Eric |
Alternative names | Roberts, Eric Anthony |
Short description | Actor |
Date of birth | April 18, 1956 |
Place of birth | Biloxi, Mississippi, U.S. |
Date of death | |
Place of death |
Mickey Rourke | |
---|---|
Rourke at the 2009 premiere of City Island |
|
Born | Philip Andre Rourke, Jr. (1952-09-16) September 16, 1952 (age 59) Schenectady, New York |
Other names | Sir Eddie Cook |
Occupation | Actor, professional boxer, screenwriter, music supervisor |
Years active | Actor (1979–present) Boxer (1991–1994) |
Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. (born September 16, 1952)[1] is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films.
During the 1980s, Rourke starred in Diner, Rumble Fish, and the erotic drama 9½ Weeks, and received critical praise for his work in Barfly and Angel Heart. In 1991, Rourke, who had trained as a boxer in his early years, left acting and became a professional boxer for a period.[2] He had supporting roles in several later films, including The Rainmaker, Buffalo '66, The Pledge, Get Carter, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Man on Fire.
In 2005, Rourke made his comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role in Sin City, for which he won awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Irish Film and Television Awards and the Online Film Critics Society. In the 2008 film The Wrestler, Rourke portrayed a past-his-prime wrestler, and received a 2009 Golden Globe award, a BAFTA award, and a nomination for an Academy Award.[3]
In 2010, he appeared in the blockbusters Iron Man 2 and The Expendables.
Contents |
Philip Andre Rourke, Jr., was born in Schenectady, New York,[1] to a family of Irish and French descent.[4] He was raised Roman Catholic and still practices his faith.[5][6][7] His father, Philip Andre Rourke, Sr., an amateur body builder, left the family when Mickey was six years old.[8] After his parents divorced, his mother, Annette,[9] married Eugene Addis, a Miami Beach police officer with five sons, and moved Rourke, his younger brother (Joey), and their sister (Patricia) to south Florida. There, he graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School in 1971.[10]
During his teenage years, Rourke focused his attention mainly on sports. He took up self-defense training at the Boys Club of Miami.[citation needed] It was there that he learned boxing skills and decided on an amateur career.
At age 12, Rourke won his first boxing match as a 112-pound flyweight,[11] fighting some of his early matches under the name Phil Rourke. He continued his boxing training at the famed 5th Street Gym, in Miami Beach, Florida, where Muhammad Ali began his career. In 1969, Rourke, then weighing 140 lbs. (63.5 kg),[citation needed] sparred with former World Welterweight Champion Luis Rodríguez. Rodriguez was the number one-rated middleweight boxer in the world and was training for his match with world champion Nino Benvenuti. Rourke boxed Rodriguez and claims to have received a concussion in this sparring match.[12]
At the 1971 Florida Golden Gloves, Rourke suffered another concussion in a boxing match. After being told by doctors to take a year off and rest, Rourke temporarily retired from the ring.
From 1964 to 1972, Rourke compiled an amateur boxing record of 27 wins (17 by knockout) and 3 defeats, which included first round knock out wins over Sherman Bergman, John Carver, and Ronald Robinson,[11] and decision victories over Ron Carter, Charles Gathers, Joe Riles, and Javier Villanueva.[11]
Mickey Rourke's amateur boxing record was 27 (wins) and 3 (losses), as mentioned on "Mickey Rourke on Inside the Actors Studio hosted by James Lipton" season 15, episode 12, original airdate 2009-08-31.
Amateur Boxing record | |||||||
Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Rd., Time | Date | Location | Notes |
Win | 13-0-0 | Deon Harris | KO | 1 | 1972 Aug 27 | Liberty City, Florida, USA | |
Win | 12-0-0 | Sherman Bergman | KO | 1 | 1972 Aug 20 | Miami, Florida, USA | Rourke climbs off canvas to win in 31 seconds. |
Win | 11-0-0 | John"Two Dice"Carver | KO | 1 ():39) | 1972 May 7 | Miami, FloridaUSA | Rourke scores 39 second knockout. |
Win | 10-0-0 | Ron"22nd Street"Robinson | KO | 1 (0:18) | 1972 Feb 15 | Miami, Florida, USA | Rourke wins in 18 seconds. |
Win | 9-0-0 | Leroy Harrington | KO | 1 | 1971 Jul 04 | Miami, Florida, USA | Rourke wins in 15 seconds. |
Win | 8-0-0 | Paul Malsoh | KO | 1 ():29) | 1970 Jun 22 | Miami, FloridaUSA | Rourke scores 29 second knockout. |
Win | 7-0-0 | Kenny Jacobs | KO | 1 (0:14) | 1970 Jun 15 | Miami Beach, Florida, USA | Rourke wins in 14 seconds. |
Win | 6-0-0 | Joe Riles | PTS | 3 () | 1964 Aug 26 | Miami, Florida, USA | |
Win | 5-0-0 | Charles Gathers | PTS | 3 | 1964 Aug 12 | Miami, Florida | |
Win | 4-0-0 | Ronnie Carter | PTS | 3 | 1965 Jun 16 | Miami, Florida, USA | |
Win | 3–0-0 | Javier Villanueva | PTS | 3 (3) | 1964 | Miami, Florida, USA | |
Win | 2-0-0 | Jesus"KoKo"Carranza | PTS | 3 | Miami, Florida, USA | ||
Win | 1–0-0 | Roger Hough | PTS | 3 (3) | 1964 July | Miami, Florida, USA |
In 1971, as a senior at Miami Beach Senior High School, Rourke had a small acting role in the Jay W. Jensen-directed school play, The Serpent.[14] However, Rourke's interests were geared to boxing, and he never appeared in any other school productions. Soon after he temporarily gave up boxing, a friend at the University of Miami told Rourke about a play he was directing, Deathwatch, and how the man playing the role of Green Eyes had quit. Rourke got the part and immediately became enamored with acting. Borrowing 400 dollars from his sister, he went to New York to take private lessons with an acting teacher from the Actors Studio, Sandra Seacat. It is she who actually motivated Rourke to go and find his father, whom he had been separated from for more than 20 years and had no idea as to what or whom he was looking for. During his visit as a guest to the Actors' Studio, after the release of The Wrestler (2008 film), while Rourke was talking to James Lipton, Lipton disclosed the fact that Rourke had been selected to the Actor's Studio in his first audition, which Elia Kazan is reported to have said that it was the "best audition in 30 years". Similarly, later director Adrian Lyne would go on to say that had Mickey died after the release of Angel Heart, he would have become a bigger phenomenon than James Dean.[12]
Rourke's film debut was a small role in Steven Spielberg's film 1941. However, it was his portrayal of an arsonist in Body Heat that received significant attention, despite his modest time on screen. He mostly appeared in television films in his early career. During the early 1980s, Rourke starred in Diner, alongside Paul Reiser, Daniel Stern, Steve Guttenberg, Tim Daly and Kevin Bacon, and yet again drew further critical notices for his portrayal as the suave compulsive gambler "Boogie" Sheftell; The National Society of Film Critics named him "Best Supporting Actor" that year. Soon thereafter, Rourke starred in Rumble Fish, Francis Ford Coppola's follow-up to The Outsiders.
Rourke's performance in the film The Pope of Greenwich Village alongside Daryl Hannah and Eric Roberts also caught the attention of critics, although the film was not financially successful. In the mid-1980s, Rourke earned himself additional leading roles. His role alongside Kim Basinger in the erotic drama 9½ Weeks helped him gain "sex symbol" status.[15] He received critical praise for his work in Barfly as the alcoholic writer Henry Chinaski (the literary alter ego of Charles Bukowski) and in Year of the Dragon. In 1987, Rourke appeared in Angel Heart. The film was nominated for several awards. It was seen as controversial by some owing to a sex scene involving Cosby Show cast member Lisa Bonet, who won an award for her part in the film.[16] Although some of Rourke's work was viewed as controversial in the U.S., he was well-received by European, and especially French, audiences, who loved the "rumpled, slightly dirty, sordid ... rebel persona"[17] that he projected in Year of the Dragon, 9½ Weeks, Angel Heart, and Desperate Hours.
In the late 1980s, Rourke performed with David Bowie on the Never Let Me Down album. Around the same time he also wrote his first screenplay, Homeboy, a boxing tale in which he starred. In 1989, Rourke starred in the docu-drama Francesco, portraying St. Francis of Assisi. This was followed by Wild Orchid, another critically panned film, which gained him a nomination for a Razzie award (also for Desperate Hours). In 1991, he starred in the box office bomb Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man as Harley Davidson, a biker whose best friend, Marlboro, was played by Don Johnson. In his last role before departing for the boxing ring, Rourke played an arms dealer chased by Willem Dafoe and Samuel Jackson in White Sands, a film noir which reviewers found to be stylish but incoherent.[18][19]
Rourke's acting career eventually became overshadowed by his personal life and career decisions. Directors such as Alan Parker found it difficult to work with him. Parker stated that "working with Mickey is a nightmare. He is very dangerous on the set because you never know what he is going to do."[17] In a documentary on the special edition DVD of Tombstone, actor Michael Biehn, who plays the part of Johnny Ringo, mentions that his role was first offered to Rourke.[20]
In 1991, Rourke decided that he "had to go back to boxing" because he felt that he "was self-destructing ... (and) had no respect for (himself as) an actor."[2] Rourke was undefeated in eight fights, with six wins (four by knockout) and two draws. He fought internationally in countries including Spain, Japan and Germany.[21]
During his boxing career, Rourke suffered a number of injuries, including a broken nose, toe, ribs, a split tongue, and a compressed cheekbone.[22] He also suffered from short term memory loss.[23]
His trainer during most of his boxing career was Hells Angels member, actor and celebrity bodyguard Chuck Zito.[24] Freddie Roach also trained Rourke for seven fights.[25] Rourke's entrance song into the ring was often Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine."[26]
Boxing promoters said that Rourke was too old to succeed against top-level fighters. Indeed, Rourke himself admits that entering the ring was a sort of personal test: "[I] just wanted to give it a shot, test myself that way physically, while I still had time."[27] In 1995, Rourke retired from boxing and returned to acting.
Rourke's boxing career resulted in a notable physical change in the 1990s, as his face needed reconstructive surgery to mend his injuries. His face was later called "appallingly disfigured."[28] In 2009, the actor told The Daily Mail that he had gone to "the wrong guy" for his surgery, and that his plastic surgeon had left his features "a mess."[22]
Professional Boxing Record | |||||||
6 Wins (4 knockouts, 2 decisions), 0 Losses, 2 Draws[29] | |||||||
Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Rd., Time | Date | Location | Notes |
Draw | 6-0-2 | Sean Gibbons | MD | 4 | September 8, 1994 | Davie, Florida, USA | |
Win | 6-0-1 | Thomas McCoy | TKO | 3 (4) | November 20, 1993 | Hamburg, Germany | |
Win | 5-0-1 | Bubba Stotts | TKO | 3 (4) | July 24, 1993 | Joplin, Missouri, USA | |
Win | 4-0-1 | Tom Bentley | KO | 1 (4) | March 30, 1993 | Kansas City, Missouri, USA | |
Win | 3-0-1 | Terry Jesmer | PTS | 4 | December 12, 1992 | Oviedo, Spain | |
Draw | 2-0-1 | Francisco Harris | MD | 4 | April 25, 1992 | Miami Beach, Florida, USA | Scoring was 38-39 for Harris, 38-38 and 38-38. |
Win | 2–0 | Darrell Miller | KO | 1 (4), 2:14 | June 23, 1991 | Tokyo, Japan | |
Win | 1–0 | Steve Powell | UD | 4 | May 23, 1991 | Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA | In his professional boxing debut, Rourke jabbed and uppercut, but he also danced, clowned and taunted the crowd throughout the fight. The boxers were constantly in clinches, two of which sent Powell through the ropes. Rourke managed to land several solid rights, particularly in the final two rounds. Scoring was 38-37, 38-37 and 39-37. |
In the early 1990s, Rourke was offered and declined the role of Butch Coolidge, which later became Bruce Willis' role in Pulp Fiction.[30] After his retirement from boxing, Rourke did accept supporting roles in several 1990s films, including Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of John Grisham's The Rainmaker, Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66, Steve Buscemi's Animal Factory, Sean Penn's The Pledge and Sylvester Stallone's remake of Get Carter. Rourke also has written several films under the name "Sir Eddie Cook", including Bullet, in which he co-starred with close friend Tupac Shakur.[31]
While Rourke was also selected for a significant role in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line; his part ended up on the editing room floor. Rourke also played a small part in the film Thursday, in which he plays a crooked cop. He also had a lead role in 1997's Double Team, which co-starred martial arts actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. It was Rourke's first over-the-top action film role, in which he played the lead villain. During that same year, he filmed Another 9½ Weeks, a sequel to 9½ Weeks, which only received limited distribution. He ended the 1990s with the direct-to-video films Out in Fifty, Shades and television film Shergar, about the kidnapping of Epsom Derby-winning thoroughbred racehorse Shergar. Rourke has expressed his bitterness over that period of his career, stating that he came to consider himself a "has-been" and lived for a time in "a state of shame."[28]
In 2001, he appeared as the villain in Enrique Iglesias's music video for "Hero," which also featured Jennifer Love Hewitt. In 2002, Rourke took the role of The Cook in Jonas Åkerlund's Spun, teaming up once again with Eric Roberts. His first collaborations with directors Robert Rodriguez and Tony Scott in Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Man on Fire, were for smaller roles. Nonetheless, these directors subsequently decided to cast Rourke in lead roles in their next films.
In 2005, Rourke made his comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role (Marv) in Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of Frank Miller's Sin City. Rourke received awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the IFTA and the Online Film Critics Society, as well as "Man of the Year" from Total Film magazine that year. Rourke followed Sin City with a supporting role in Tony Scott's Domino alongside Keira Knightley, in which he played a bounty hunter.
Rourke played the role of "The Blackbird" in an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Killshot, and appeared as Darrius Sayle in the adaptation of the Alex Rider novel Stormbreaker.
In addition, in 2004, Rourke provided the voice for "Jericho" in the third installment of the Driver video game series. Rourke also recently appeared in a 40-page story by photographer Bryan Adams for Berlin's Zoo Magazine. In an article about Rourke's return to steady acting roles, entitled "Mickey Rourke Rising",[32] Christopher Heard stated that actors/musicians Tupac Shakur, Johnny Depp, Sean Penn and Brad Pitt have "...animated praise for Rourke and his work." During a roundtable session of Oscar-nominated actors held by Newsweek, Brad Pitt cited Rourke as one of his early acting heroes along with Sean Penn and Gary Oldman.[33]
Despite having withdrawn from acting at various points, and having made films that he now sees as a creative "sell-out" (the action film Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man), Rourke has stated that "...all that I have been through...[has] made me a better, more interesting actor." Rourke's renewed interest in pursuing acting can be seen in his statement that "... my best work is still ahead of me."[34]
Rourke had a role in the film version of The Informers, playing Peter, an amoral former studio security guard who plots to kidnap a small child.
In 2008, Rourke played the lead in The Wrestler, winner of the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, about washed-up professional wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Regarding first reading the screenplay, he stated that he originally "didn't care for it."
“ | I didn't really care for the script, but I wanted to work with Darren and I kind of thought that whoever wrote the script hadn't spent as much time as I had around these kind of people and he wouldn't have spoken the way the dude was speaking. And, so Darren let me rewrite all my part and he put the periods in and crossed the Ts. So once we made that change I was OK with it.[35] | ” |
He also spoke on personal concern and hesitance of being in a film about wrestling, for he perceived it as being "pre-arranged and pre-choreographed." However, as he trained for the film, he developed an appreciation and respect for what real-life pro wrestlers do to prepare for the ring:
“ | I kept getting hurt. I think I had three MRIs in two months because I wasn't landing right. These guys take several years to learn how to land and I think after I started getting hurt doing it, I started to realize these guys are really suffering and I kind of gained a respect for their sport.[36] | ” |
He trained under former WWE wrestler Afa the Wild Samoan for the part, and has received a British Academy (BAFTA) award, a Golden Globe award, an Independent Spirit Award, and an Oscar nomination as Best Actor. Rourke was pessimistic about his chances to win the Oscar, as he had burned many bridges in Hollywood as a result of his past behavior.[22] Rourke lost the Oscar to Sean Penn, while Penn did acknowledge Rourke in his acceptance speech.
Rourke has written or co-written six scripts: Homeboy, The Last Ride, Bullet, Killer Moon, Penance and the latest, Pain. Of these, the first three were produced as films between 1988 and 1996.
In early 2009, Rourke developed a small feud with WWE Superstar Chris Jericho, as part of a storyline. The storyline climaxed at WrestleMania XXV, when Rourke knocked out Jericho with a left hook after Jericho won his match against Jimmy Snuka, Ricky Steamboat, and Roddy Piper, with Ric Flair in their corner.
In 2009, Rourke starred in John Rich's music video for Shuttin' Detroit Down alongside Kris Kristofferson.
In 2009, Rourke voiced protagonist U.S. Navy SEAL Dick Marcinko in the video game Rogue Warrior. The game received very poor reviews from critics.
In 2010, Rourke played the role of the main villain Whiplash in the film Iron Man 2, in an interview with Rip It Up Magazine he revealed that he prepared for the role by visiting Russian jail inmates.[37] He also had a supporting role playing 'Tool' in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables.
Just before the end of the year, he confirmed on a British TV talk show that he would play Gareth Thomas in an upcoming film about the Welsh rugby star who came out as gay the previous year.[38] As of February 2011, he had begun research on the film, but noted, "We're not going to make this movie until we've done all the proper research. We need to do our homework and I need to train for from nine to eleven months."[39]
In 2011, Rourke was cast in the film Java Heat as an American citizen shadowing terrorists group in Java, Indonesia. The film will be released in 2013.[40]
Rourke has dated several celebrities, including Terry Farrell and Sasha Volkova. He has been married twice. In 1981, he married Debra Feuer, whom he met on the set of Hardcase (1981) and who co-starred with him in Homeboy (1988) as his love interest. The marriage ended in 1989, with Rourke subsequently commenting that making the film 9½ Weeks "was not particularly considerate to my wife's needs."[41] The two have remained good friends, according to an interview Feuer gave in 2009.[42]
Wild Orchid co-star Carré Otis was briefly a cause célèbre following the release of the film owing to rumors that she and then-lover Rourke filmed an unsimulated sex scene. Otis married Rourke on June 26, 1992. In 1994, Rourke was arrested for spousal abuse. The charges were later dropped. The couple reconciled and also starred together in Exit in Red, but their marriage ended in December 1998. In November 2007, Rourke was arrested again, this time on DUI charges in Miami Beach.[43]
In numerous TV and print interviews, he attributes his comeback after fourteen years to his agent David A. Unger,[44][45] weekly meetings with a psychiatrist, "Steve," and a Catholic priest he identified as "Father Pete."[citation needed]
Since 2009, Rourke has been dating the Russian model Anastassija Makarenko. In mid-2011, he bought an apartment in Wiesbaden, Germany which is close to his girlfriend's parents' place of residence.[46]
Rourke is also a motorcycle enthusiast and uses motorcycles in some of his films.[citation needed]
In addition to his faith and his psychiatric treatment, Rourke has publicly attributed his comeback to his dogs. He is well known as a pet lover, particularly fond of small-breed dogs. A spay/neuter advocate, Rourke participated in a protest outside of a pet shop in 2007[47] and has done a public service announcement for PETA.[48]
His first little dog was reportedly a gift from his second wife.[47] Though Rourke's dogs are generally referred to as "chihuahuas," some are not pure-bred. Loki, his most-publicized dog whom he described as "the love of my life,"[47] was a chihuahua-terrier mix.[49][50] So reliant was Rourke on Loki's companionship, he spent US$5,400 to have her flown to England while he was on the set of the film Stormbreaker.[50]
Rourke gave his dogs credit during his Golden Globe Best Actor acceptance speech January 11, 2009: "I'd like to thank all my dogs. The ones that are here, the ones that aren't here anymore because sometimes when a man's alone, that's all you got is your dog. And they've meant the world to me."[51] The day of the 2009 Golden Globes show, he told Barbara Walters that "I sort of self-destructed and everything came out about fourteen years ago or so ... the wife had left, the career was over, the money was not an ounce. The dogs were there when no one else was there." Asked by Walters if he had considered suicide, he responded:
“ | Yeah, I didn't want to be here, but I didn't want to kill myself. I just wanted to push a button and disappear....I think I hadn't left the house for four or five months, and I was sitting in the closet, sleeping in the closet for some reason, and I was in a bad place, and I just remember I was thinking, 'Oh, man, if I do this,' [and] then I looked at my dog, Lowjack, and he made a sound, like a little almost human sound. I don't have kids, the dogs became everything to me. The dog was looking at me going, 'Who's going to take care of me?' | ” |
—Mickey Rourke[52] |
Despite being identified as "Lowjack" in the transcription above, the dog in the anecdote was apparently Beau Jack, who sired two of Rourke's later pets, Loki and her littermate Chocolate.[53] Beau Jack died in 2002, though Rourke gave him 45 minutes of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.[50][54] Chocolate was the subject of a children's book, Chocolate at the Four Seasons, about his temporary stay with producer Bonnie Timmerman.[55] Chocolate returned to Rourke and died in 2006.[55] In addition to those dogs and several other past pets, Rourke currently owns a chihuahua named Jaws who appeared with him in his 2009 PETA ad, as well as in the film "Man on Fire."[48] He has had as many as seven dogs at one time, back in 2005.[54] At the time of his Golden Globes tribute to his pets, Rourke owned five chihuahuas: Loki, Jaws, Ruby Baby, La Negra and Bella Loca.[50] About a month later, on February 18, 2009, Loki died in Rourke's arms at the age of 18.[56]
Year | Award | Nomination | Film | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1983 | Boston Society of Film Critics Award | Best Supporting Actor | Diner | Won |
National Society of Film Critics | Best Supporting Actor | |||
1988 | Independent Spirit Awards | Best Actor | Barfly | Nominated |
1991 | Razzie Award | Worst Actor | Desperate Hours | Nominated |
Wild Orchid | ||||
2006 | Saturn Award | Best Supporting Actor | Sin City | Won |
Chicago Film Critics Association | Best Supporting Actor | |||
Irish Film and Television Awards | Best International Actor | |||
Online Film Critics Society | Best Supporting Actor | |||
Satellite Award | Best Supporting Actor | Nominated | ||
Washington DC Area Film Critics Association | Best Ensemble | Nominated | ||
Critics' Choice Award | Best Ensemble | Nominated | ||
Total Film magazine | Man of the Year | Voted | ||
2008 | Moviefone | Sexiest Movie Couple | 9½ Weeks | Voted |
Golden Orange Award | Honorary Award | Won | ||
Satellite Awards | Best Actor - Drama | The Wrestler | Nominated | |
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics | Best Actor | Won | ||
San Francisco Film Critics | Best Actor | Won | ||
Broadcast Film Critics | Best Actor | Nominated | ||
San Diego Film Critics Society | Best Actor | Won | ||
Toronto Film Critics Association | Best Actor | Won | ||
Chicago Film Critics Association | Best Actor | Won | ||
Florida Film Critics Circle | Best Actor | Won | ||
Detroit Film Critics Society | Best Actor | Won | ||
2009 | Golden Globe Award | Best Actor - Drama | Won | |
Independent Spirit Award | Best Male Lead | Won | ||
BAFTA Award | Best Actor | Won | ||
Academy Awards | Best Male Actor | Nominated | ||
Chlotrudis Awards | Best Actor | Nominated | ||
Screen Actors Guild Awards | Best Male Actor | Nominated | ||
Santa Barbara International Film Festival | Riviera Award | Awarded | ||
2010 | Scream Awards | Best Villain | Iron Man 2 | Won |
2011 | MTV Movie Awards | Best Villain | Iron Man 2 | Nominated |
Only two films of Mickey Rourke’s are in the IMDb Top 250. Sin City is #85 and The Wrestler is #78. According to Rotten Tomatoes, Mickey’s most “fresh” film is The Wrestler and most "rotten" film is Wild Orchid.
Mickey Rourke films which rated as "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes.
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Mickey Rourke films which rate "fresh" on Metacritic.
Rank | Title | % |
---|---|---|
1 | Diner | 86% |
2 | The Wrestler | 81% |
3 | Body Heat | 78% |
4 | The Rainmaker | 72% |
5 | The Pledge | 71% |
6 | Buffalo '66 | 68% |
7 | The Animal Factory | 65% |
8 | Rumble Fish | 63% |
During his career, Rourke worked with directors including Steven Spielberg, Lawrence Kasdan, Francis Ford Coppola, Barry Levinson, Stuart Rosenberg, Nicolas Roeg, Michael Cimino, Adrian Lyne, Alan Parker, Mike Hodges, Barbet Schroeder, Walter Hill, Tsui Hark, Jonas Åkerlund, Wong Kar-wai, Tony Scott, Robert Rodriguez and John Madden, as well as actors-turned-directors Sean Penn, Vincent Gallo and Steve Buscemi. Rourke also starred in the films which also stars popular actors including Kim Basinger, Jean Claude Van Damme, Helena Bonham Carter, Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Tupac Shakur, Bruce Willis, Benicio del Toro, Alicia Silverstone, Anthony Hopkins, Jack Nicholson, Willem Dafoe, Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington, Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Robert De Niro and so on. Rourke worked with actor Christopher Walken 5 times. They starred together in the films Heaven's Gate, Homeboy, Man on Fire, Domino and voice acting in video game True Crime: New York City (2005).
Christopher Walken stated to the Film Comment on August, 1992 that destiny to make Homeboy with Mickey Rourke:
“ | Mickey Rourke and I were in Heaven's Gate together; he had this tiny part and I was playing whatsisname. We were sitting up there in the mountains talking about...dinosaurs. And I told him about this thing I had read in some science magazine, that there's a theory that dinosaurs really never disappeared at all. That in fact all they did was get smaller and smaller, their scales turned into feathers and they flew away-and that in fact dinosaurs are still with us, they're just birds. And Mickey said, ‘That's interesting,’ and he started telling me about this movie that he was going to do someday about a boxer and it was called Homeboy. You know, I remember also he told me at the time, ‘There's this guy, the fighters manager, and you're gonna play this part.’ I said, ‘Okay Mickey, let's go.’ So almost ten years went by and there we were making it. And I said to him, ‘Why don’t I tell that story about the birds and dinosaurs?’ He said. ‘Right.’ And there is that scene at the beach with all the seagulls, talking about dinosaurs. It's completely disconnected from anything going on in the movie, but I think it's one of the things in the movie...It's real. Here are these two guys who are really kind of victims, talking about the origin and destiny of dinosaurs.[57] | ” |
Mickey Rourke made his stage debut in a revival of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge. Rourke also lent his voice to the video games Driv3r (2004) as Jericho and True Crime: New York City (2005) as Terrence "Terry" Higgins, which was the his fifth and last work with actor Christopher Walken. He also appeared in a Japanese TV commercial for Suntory Reserve (early 90s) and a commercial for Daihatsu and Lark (cigarette). More recently, in 2009, Rourke voiced the character of Dick Marcinko for the biographical video game Rogue Warrior, which was released on December 1, 2009.[58] Ironically, Rourke's portrayal of Marcinko was a source of humorous praise from a few critics (although many others criticized Rourke's role to the same degree that they did every other aspect of the game).
Rourke starred in a music video, "Hero." He played a gangster in this Enrique Iglesias music video. Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt also made an appearance in this clip. Rourke also provided the mid-song rap on the David Bowie song "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)" on his album Never Let Me Down (1987).
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mickey Rourke |
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Persondata | |
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Name | Rourke, Mickey |
Alternative names | |
Short description | American actor |
Date of birth | 1952-09-16 |
Place of birth | Schenectady, New York, U.S. |
Date of death | |
Place of death |