Graham or Graeme are both surnames and given names; they may refer to:

People[link]

• Graham (given name), an English language masculine given name
• Graham (surname), an English language surname
• Graeme (surname), an English language surname
• For people with "Graham" as a surname see Graham (surname)
• For people with "Graham" as a given name see All pages beginning with "Graham"
• For people with "Graeme" as a name see All pages beginning with "Graeme"

Geography[link]

• Graham Land, Antarctica

United States[link]

• Graham, Alabama
• Graham, Georgia
• Graham, Daviess County, Indiana
• Graham, Missouri
• Graham, North Carolina
• Graham, Texas
• Graham, Washington
• Graham County, Arizona
• Graham County, Kansas
• Graham County, North Carolina
• Graham Township, Indiana
• Graham Township, Kansas
• Graham Township, North Dakota
• Graham Township, Minnesota
• Graham Township, Pennsylvania
• Graham Lakes Township, Minnesota

Other uses[link]

• Clan Graham, a Scottish clan
• Graham (hill), a class of hill in Scotland
• Graham flour, a type of flour similar to whole wheat flour
  • Graham cracker, a baked good made from Graham flour
• Graham factors, factors for determining ambiguity in U.S. patent law (see Inventive step and non-obviousness or Graham v. John Deere Co.)
• Graham Island
  • Graham Island, the former English name for Ferdinandea, a sea volcano off the south coast of Sicily
  • Graham Island, a member of the Charlotte Island group off the coast of British Columbia, Canada
  • Graham Island, Nunavut, a Canadian arctic island in Nunavut, Canada
• Graham (mango), a named mango cultivar originating in Trinidad.
• Graham number, a figure used in value investing
• Graham's number, the largest number that has ever been seriously used in a mathematical proof
• Graham scan, a method of computing a convex hull
• Graham and Graham-Paige, automobile makers in Detroit, USA, between 1928 and 1940

See also[link]

• Gram
• Gramm (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Katerina Graham
Graham attending Maxim Magazine's 10th Annual Hot 100 Celebration, Santa Monica, California on May 13, 2009.
Background information
Birth name	Katerina Alexandre Graham
Also known as	Kat Graham
Born	(1989-09-05) September 5, 1989 (age 22) Geneva, Switzerland
Genres	Pop, dance
Occupations	Actress, singer, dancer, model
Years active	1998–present (actress) 2008–present (singer)
Labels	A&M/Octone (2012-present)
Associated acts	will.i.am
Website	http://www.katgraham.com/

Katerina Alexandre Graham (born September 5, 1989), better known by her stage name Kat Graham, is a Swiss-born American actress, model, singer, and dancer. She is best known for her role of Bonnie Bennett on The CW television series The Vampire Diaries.^[1][2][3]

Early life[link]

Graham was born in Geneva, Switzerland and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Joseph, is Liberian, and her mother, Natasha, is Jewish (of Russian and Polish origin).^[4][5] Graham's father was a music executive and the godfather of two of Quincy Jones' children, while her grandfather was a UN Ambassador, serving for 40 years in The Netherlands, Sweden, Romania, and Kenya.^[6][7] Her parents divorced when she was five.^[8] She has a half-brother born in Tel Aviv, Yakov.^[6]

Graham attended Hebrew school and speaks English, Spanish and French, as well as some Hebrew and Portuguese.^[9] She is a supporter of LGBT rights.^[8]

Career[link]

Commercials and dancing[link]

Graham began her career in the entertainment industry at age six.^[10] Over the next eight years, she appeared in various commercials, including those for Barbie, K-Mart, Pop Tarts, and Edison. At 17, Graham participated in a national marketing campaign to advertise Coca-Cola's soft drink Fanta. Graham appeared in the marketing campaign as a member of the "Fantanas", known as Capri, also known as Strawberry.^[11][12]

At the age of 15, Graham caught the eye of choreographer Fatima Robinson, and was asked to perform at the BET Awards as a background dancer for lil' Bow Wow. Graham followed her BET Awards appearance with work as a background dancer for Missy Elliott, Pharrell, Jamie Foxx, and choreographers Hi-Hat and Michael Rooney.^[13] Graham has appeared in various music videos, including Akon's "Lonely", Christina Millian's "Dip It Low", Justin Bieber and Usher's "Somebody to Love (Remix)", 112's "What If", John Legend's "Used to Love U", B2K's "Why I Love You", Musiq Soulchild's "B.U.D.D.Y.", and Nelly's "Just A Dream" and Diddy-Dirty Money with Usher "Looking for Love".^[14][15]

Television and film[link]

In 2002 Graham made her television debut on the Disney Channel television series Lizzie McGuire. Graham went on to appear on various television shows, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The OC, Malcolm In The Middle, Joan of Arcadia, Grounded For Life, and "Greek".^[16] In 2008 appeared in three episodes of the Disney Channel television series Hannah Montana playing the role of a girlfriend to the character Jackson Stewart. Graham has also had notable supporting roles in films such as 17 Again and The Roommate.^[17][18]

In December 2008 Graham began filming Sci-Fi Dance film Boogie Town in Los Angeles, California. Filming on the film was put on hold that same month due to payroll issues with background performers. In April 2009 principal photography was stopped dude to schedule conflicts with some of her cast mates and other projects. The film is set in a futuristic New York City in 2015 where dance battles are permanently banned. Graham plays the role of Ingrid. The film's release date is yet to be determined.

In March 2009 Graham was cast in The CW Supernatural Drama television series The Vampire Diaries based on the book trilogy of the same name The Vampire Diaries. Graham portrays the role of Bonnie Bennett a teenage witch and is considered her breakout role. The series premiered on September 10, 2009 to over 3.60 million viewers and received praise for the series progression from critics. In May 2012 the series was renewed for the shows fourth season. In 2011 Graham won "Scene Stealer Female" at the Teen Choice Awards for her role on the show.^[16]

In August 2010 The Hollywood Reporter announced Graham was cast in the Universal Pictures Dance Drama film Honey 2. The film is a sequel to the 2003 film Honey. The film follows a troubled teenager and aspiring dancer whom joins a dance crew. The film was released theatrically in selected countries for a limited release and went on to make over $8 million worldwide. In June 2011 the film was released Straight-to-DVD in North America to negative reviews from critics though Graham's performance and dancing was praised. That same year Graham starred in another Dance film this time a Kung Fu Dance Action film called Dance Fu in which Graham appeared as the female lead.^[19]

Music[link]

In 2002 she wrote a song entitled "Derailed" which was featured in Jean-Claude Van Damme film of the same name film.^[20] In 2006 Graham pursued a career as a musical artist. Graham found her break in 2007 when she was featured on "The Donque Song" and "I Got It From My Mama" on Grammy Award Winner Rapper will.i.am's third studio album Songs About Girls.^[21] The move saw Graham embark on a world tour with The Black Eyed Peas as a supporting act for the Black Blue & You Tour.

In October 2010 Graham released her debut single "Sassy". A music video premiered that same month but the track failed to chart.^[22][23] She then went on to release covers of artists such as Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul which garnered Graham the attention of Paula who praised her cover.^[24][25] Graham contributed a cover of the Garbage song "Only Happy When It Rains" to The Vampire Diaries soundtrack. The song premiered in December 2010 in an episode of the series titled "The Sacrifice".^[26] In March 2011 Graham released another single titled "I Want It All". The music video premiered in May 2011.

In February 2012 Graham signed a recording contract with A&M Octone Records which was marked as her first major label signing. In March 2012 Graham released her first single "Put Your Graffiti On Me" which premiered on PerezHilton.com which received positive reviews from critics. That same month the official music video premiered and as of May 30, 2012 has reached over 3 million views on YouTube. The song peaked at #45 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs Chart. On May 29 Graham performed the track on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. This was marked as her first televised musical performance ever. On that same day Graham released her first EP "Against The Wall" which debuted at #54 on the iTunes Music Album Chart.^[27] Graham is currently in the process of recording her debut album.

Influences[link]

Graham cites Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears, M.I.A., Madonna, Janet Jackson and Grace Jones as major music influences. In addition, her other music inspirations include Lady Gaga, Radiohead, N.A.S.A., Craig David, N.E.R.D. and Sliimy.^[28][29] Graham cites the work of Missy Elliott, Prince and The Spice Girls as ahead of their time and major influences on her work and aesthetic.^[29] She describes her sound as "vintage 90's with a modern twist".^[30]

Graham's fashion is styled by Brett Alan, and has cited Manish Arora, Raphael Young, Jeremy Scott, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, M.I.A., The Blonds, Lady Gaga and Carri "Cassetteplaya" Mundane as her fashion inspirations.^[31]

Filmography[link]

EP[link]

Singles[link]

Featured Singles[link]

Tour[link]

• The Fantanas (2004–2006)
• The Black Eyed Peas Black Blue & You Tour (2007)
• The Vampire Diaries Tour – Q&A With The Cast (2010)

Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Katerina Graham Official Website
• Katerina Graham at the Internet Movie Database

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2010)

Graham Jarvis (August 25, 1930 – April 16, 2003) was a Canadian character actor in American films and television from the 1960s.

Born in Toronto, Jarvis attended Williams College before moving to New York to pursue a career in theater. Jarvis appeared on such television programs as Naked City, Route 66, N.Y.P.D., All in the Family, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, M*A*S*H, Mork & Mindy, Starsky and Hutch, Cagney and Lacey, Fame, Married... with Children, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The X Files, ER, and Six Feet Under. He also played character roles in many films. His last major part was as "Charles Jackson", father of Annie Jackson Camden in the Warner Brothers TV drama 7th Heaven, a role that he filled until his death.

Jarvis acted in the role of Elliot Sinclair in the Journeyman Project trio of video games and was also the narrator in the first American production of The Rocky Horror Show at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles, playing alongside Meat Loaf and Tim Curry.

He lived in Los Angeles with his wife Joanna Jarvis, and two sons Alex and Matt. Jarvis was also the uncle of former AIMR President Peter Jarvis. In 2003, he died from multiple myeloma. He was interred at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California.

Selected Filmography[link]

• Bye Bye Braverman (1968)
• Alice's Restaurant (1969)
• The Out-of-Towners (1970)
• Cold Turkey (1971)
• Prophecy (1979)
• Silkwood (1983)
• Tough Guys (1986)
• Misery (1990)
• Last of the Dogmen (1995)

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Graham Jarvis at Find a Grave
• Graham Jarvis at the Internet Movie Database
• Graham Jarvis at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)

This article about a Canadian film actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Martha Graham
Martha Graham by Yousuf Karsh (1948)
Born	(1894-05-11)May 11, 1894 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	April 1, 1991(1991-04-01) (aged 96) New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Field	Dance and choreography
Movement	Modern dance
Influenced by	Eleonora Duse
Influenced	Paul Taylor
Awards	Kennedy Center Honors (1979) Presidential Medal of Freedom (1976) National Medal of Arts (1985)

Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts,^[1][2] Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.^[3]

She danced and choreographed for over seventy years. Graham was the first dancer ever to perform at the White House, travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and receive the highest civilian award of the USA: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the Key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. She said, "I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable."^{[citation needed]}

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Graham was born in Allegheny City, which today is part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1894. Her father George Graham was what in the Victorian era was known as an "alienist", a practitioner of an early form of psychiatry. The Grahams were strict Presbyterians. Dr. Graham was a third generation American of Irish descent and her mother Jane Beers was a tenth generation descendant of Puritan Miles Standish.

In the mid 1910s, she began her studies at the newly created Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn,^[4] at which she would stay till 1923.

New era in dance[link]

In 1925, Graham was employed at the Eastman School of Music where Rouben Mamoulian was head of the School of Drama. Among other performances, together they produced a short two-color film called The Flute of Krishna, featuring Eastman students. Mamoulian left Eastman shortly thereafter and Graham chose to leave also, even though she was asked to stay on.

In 1926, the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance was established. On April 18 of the same year,^[4] at the 48th Street Theatre, Graham debuted with her first independent concert, consisting of eighteen short solos and trios that she had choreographed. She would later say of the concert "Everything I did was influenced by Denishawn."^[5][6]

One of Graham's students was heiress Bethsabée de Rothschild with whom she became close friends. When Rothschild moved to Israel and established the Batsheva Dance Company in 1965, Graham became the company's first director.

In 1936, Graham made her defining work, "Chronicle", which signaled the beginning of a new era in modern dance.^{[citation needed]} The dance brought serious issues to the stage for the general public in a dramatic manner. Influenced by the Wall Street Crash, the Great Depression and the Spanish Civil War, it focused on depression and isolation, reflected in the dark nature of both the set and costumes.

In 1938 Erick Hawkins was the first man to dance with her company. The following year, he officially joined her troupe, dancing male lead in a number of Graham's works. They were married in 1948. He left her troupe in 1951 and they divorced in 1954.

Her largest-scale work, the evening-length Clytemnestra, was created in 1958, with a score by Egyptian-born composer Halim El-Dabh. She also collaborated with composers including Aaron Copland on Appalachian Spring, Louis Horst, Samuel Barber, William Schuman, Carlos Surinach, Norman Dello Joio, and Gian Carlo Menotti.^[7] Graham's mother died in Santa Barbara in 1958. Her oldest friend and musical collaborator Louis Horst died in 1964. She said of Horst "His sympathy and understanding, but primarily his faith, gave me a landscape to move in. Without it, I should certainly have been lost."

There were a few notable exceptions to her dances being taped. For example, she worked on a limited basis with still photographers Imogen Cunningham in the 1930s, and Barbara Morgan in the 1940s. Graham considered Philippe Halsman's photographs of "Dark Meadows" the most complete photographic record of any of her dances. Halsman also photographed in the 1940s: "Letter to the World", "Cave of the Heart", "Night Journey" and "Every Soul is a Circus". In later years her thinking on the matter evolved and others convinced her to let them recreate some of what was lost.

Martha Graham with Bertram Ross (1961)

Graham started her career at an age that was considered late for a dancer. She was still dancing by the late 1960s and her works from this era included roles for herself which were more acted than danced and relied on the movement of the company dancing around her. In her biography Martha Agnes de Mille cites Graham's last performance as the evening of May 25, 1968, in a 'Time of Snow'. But in A Dancer's Life biographer Russell Freedman lists the year of Graham's final performance as 1969. In her 1991 autobiography Blood Memory Graham herself lists her final performance as her 1970 appearance in "Cortege of Eagles" when she was 76 years old.

In the years that followed her departure from the stage Graham sank into a deep depression fueled by views from the wings of young dancers performing many of the dances she had choreographed for herself and her former husband. Graham's health declined precipitously as she abused alcohol to numb her pain. In Blood Memory she wrote:

It wasn't until years after I had relinquished a ballet that I could bear to watch someone else dance it. I believe in never looking back, never indulging in nostalgia, or reminiscing. Yet how can you avoid it when you look on stage and see a dancer made up to look as you did thirty years ago, dancing a ballet you created with someone you were then deeply in love with, your husband? I think that is a circle of hell Dante omitted.

[When I stopped dancing] I had lost my will to live. I stayed home alone, ate very little, and drank too much and brooded. My face was ruined, and people say I looked odd, which I agreed with. Finally my system just gave in. I was in the hospital for a long time, much of it in a coma.^{[Full citation needed]}

After a failed suicide attempt she was hospitalized. Graham not only survived her hospital stay but she rallied. In 1972 she quit drinking, returned to her studio, reorganized her company and went on to choreograph ten new ballets and many revivals. Her last completed ballet was 1990's Maple Leaf Rag.

Graham choreographed until her death in New York City from pneumonia in 1991, aged 96.^[8] She was cremated, and her ashes were spread over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico.

Influence and legacy[link]

Graham has been sometimes termed the "Picasso of Dance," in that her importance and influence to modern dance can be considered equivalent to what Pablo Picasso was to modern visual arts.^[1][2] Her impact has been also compared with the influence Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.^[3]

To celebrate her 117th birthday on May 11, 2011, Google celebrated by turning their logo for one day into a logo dedicating the life and legacy of Graham.^[9]

Martha Graham has been said to be the one that brought dance into the twentieth century. Due to the work of her assistants, Ron Protas and Linda Hodes, much of Graham’s work and technique have been preserved. They taped interviews of Graham describing her entire technique, and videos of her performances.^[10] As Glen Tetley told Agnes de Mille, “The wonderful thing about Martha in her good days was her generosity. So many people stole Martha’s unique personal vocabulary, consciously or unconsciously, and performed it in concerts. I have never once heard Martha say, ‘So-and-so has used my choreography.'"^[11] An entire movement was created by her that revolutionized the dance world and created what is known today as modern dance. Now, dancers all over the world study and perform modern dance. Choreographers and professional dancers look to her for inspiration.^[12]

Martha Graham Dance Company[link]

The Martha Graham Dance Company is the oldest dance company in America,^[13] founded in 1926. It has helped develop many famous dancers and choreographers of the 20th and 21st centuries including Erick Hawkins, Anna Sokolow, Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor. It continues to perform, including at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in June 2008, a program consisting of: Ruth St. Denis' The Incense; Graham's reconstruction of Ted Shawn's Serenata Morisca; Graham's Lamentation; Yuriko's reconstruction of Graham's Panorama, performed by dancers from Skidmore College; excerpts from Yuriko's and Graham's reconstruction of the latter's Chronicle from the Julien Bryan film; Graham's Errand into the Maze and Maple Leaf Rag.^{[citation needed]} The company also performed in 2007 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, with a program consisting of: Appalachian Spring, Embattled Garden, Errand into the Maze, and American Original.^[14][15]

Quotations[link]

According to Agnes de Mille:

The greatest thing she ever said to me was in 1943 after the opening of Oklahoma!, when I suddenly had unexpected, flamboyant success for a work I thought was only fairly good, after years of neglect for work I thought was fine. I was bewildered and worried that my entire scale of values was untrustworthy. I talked to Martha. I remember the conversation well. It was in a Schrafft's restaurant over a soda. I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be. Martha said to me, very quietly: "There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."^[16]

“Virile gestures are evocative of the only true beauty. Ugliness may be actually beautiful if it cries out with the voice of power” - Martha Graham 1928. ^[17]

Accolades[link]

Graham was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 by President Gerald Ford (the First Lady Betty Ford had danced with Graham in her youth). Ford declared her "a national treasure".^{[citation needed]}

Graham was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame in 1987.^{[citation needed]}

In 1998 Graham was named "Dancer of the Century" by Time Magazine,^[18] and one of the female "Icons of the Century" by People Magazine.^{[citation needed]} The New York Times called her a "brilliant, young dancer".^{[citation needed]}

Choreography[link]

This excerpt from John Martin’s reviews in the New York Times provides insight on Graham’s choreographic style. “Frequently the vividness and intensity of her purpose are so potent that on the rise of the curtain they strike like a blow, and in that moment one must decide whether he is for or against her. She boils down her moods and movements until they are devoid of all extraneous substances and are concentrated to the highest degree.”^[19]

Early dancers[link]

"Graham's original girls were superb – Bessie Schonberg, Evelyn Sabin, Martha Hill, Gertrude Shurr, Anna Sokolow, Nelle Fisher, Dorothy Bird, Bonnie Bird, Sophie Maslow, May O'Donnell, Jane Dudley, Anita Alvarez, Pearl Lang – as were the second group – Yuriko, Ethel Butler, Ethel Winter, Jean Erdman, Patricia Birch, Nina Fonaroff, Matt Turney, Mary Hinkson. And the group of men – Erick Hawkins, and after him Merce Cunningham, David Campbell, John Butler, Robert Cohan, Stuart Hodes, Glen Tetley, Bertram Ross, Paul Taylor, Mark Ryder, William Carter."^[21]

See also[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bondi, Victor (1995) American Decades 1940–1949
• de Mille, Agnes (1991). Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham. NYC: Random House. ISBN 0-394-55643-7. 

Further reading[link]

• Newman, Gerald (1998). Martha Graham: Founder of Modern Dance. Danbury, Connecticut: Franklin Watts. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Martha Graham

• Martha Graham at Find a Grave
• An Athlete of God: The Personal Essay of Martha Graham
• PBS:American Masters biography
• Kennedy Center biography
• Martha Graham at the Internet Movie Database
• MarthaGraham.org – Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
• University of Pittsburgh online text
• MySpace.com/marthagrahamdancecompany – "MySpace site run by dancers of the Martha Graham Dance Company"
• BlackHistoryDaily.com – Martha Graham
• NY Times review by John Martin, June 7, 1959 of Episodes
• Read about the reconstruction of Clytemnestra at The Clytemnestra Project Site
• Batsheva Dance Company: From Graham to Gaga – Batsheva’s transition from a strongly American-influenced company to the more distinctive troupe it is today.
• (German) Martha Graham Dance Company
• Martha Graham's first recital, dancing barefoot on March 9, 1917, at the Peppers Estate ballroom in Santa Barbara.
• Archival footage of Martha Graham Dance Company performing Night Journey in 1994 at Jacob's Pillow

Billy Graham
Billy Graham in 2008.
Born	William Franklin Graham, Jr. (1918-11-07) November 7, 1918 (age 93) Charlotte, North Carolina
Education	Diploma in Biblical Studies, Florida Bible Institute (Trinity Bible College), 1940 B.A. in Anthropology, Wheaton College, 1943
Occupation	Evangelist
Religion	Evangelical Christian
Spouse	Ruth Graham (m. 1943–2007; her death)
Children	Franklin, Nelson, Virginia, Anne Ruth
Signature
Ordained	Southern Baptist[1]
Offices held	President, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
Title	Doctor (Honorary)
Website
www.billygraham.org

William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. (born November 7, 1918) is an American evangelical Christian evangelist, ordained as a Southern Baptist minister, who rose to celebrity status with national media backing of William Randolph Hearst and Henry Luce in 1949. His sermons were broadcast on radio and television, with some still re-broadcast today.

Graham is notable for having been a spiritual adviser to several United States Presidents; he was particularly close to Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon.^[2] During the civil rights movement, he began to support integrated seating for his revivals and crusades; in 1957 he invited Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to jointly preach at a huge revival in New York City, where they appeared together at Madison Square Garden, and bailed the minister out of jail in the 1960s when he was arrested in demonstrations.

Having built an evangelical empire and organized huge events worldwide, Graham has personally preached the Gospel to more people than any other person in history. His institutions include a variety of media and publishing outlets.^[3] According to his staff, more than 3.2 million people have responded to the invitation at Billy Graham Crusades to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. As of 2008, Graham's estimated lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion.^[3]

With his renown and international travel, Graham has repeatedly been on Gallup's list of most admired men and women. He has appeared on the list 55 times since 1955 (including 49 consecutive years), more than any other individual in the world.^[4]

Early life[link]

Named after his father and born November 7, 1918, he is the first son of Morrow Coffey (1892–1981) and William Franklin Graham, Sr. (1888–1962); he grew up on the family dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina. Called Billy, he was raised in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church by his parents and was of Scottish descent.^[5][6] In 1933, when Prohibition in the United States ended, Graham's father forced Billy and his sister Katherine to drink beer until they got sick, which created such an aversion that both avoided alcohol and drugs the rest of their lives.^[7]

After Graham was turned down for membership in a local youth group because he was "too worldly,"^[7] Albert McMakin, who worked on the Graham farm, persuaded the youth to go see Mordecai Ham, an evangelist.^[3] According to his autobiography, Graham was converted in 1934 at age 16 during a series of revival meetings in Charlotte led by the evangelist.^[8]

After graduating from Sharon High School in May 1936, Graham attended Bob Jones College, located in Cleveland, Tennessee. After one semester, he found it too legalistic in both coursework and rules.^[7] At this time, he was influenced and inspired by Pastor Charley Young from Eastport Bible Church. He was almost expelled, but Bob Jones, Sr. warned him not to throw his life away: "At best, all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks.... You have a voice that pulls. God can use that voice of yours. He can use it mightily."^[7]

In 1937, Graham transferred to the Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College of Florida). (Today's Florida College is now located at that site in Temple Terrace, Florida.) In his autobiography, Graham wrote of receiving his "calling on the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club," which is immediately in front of today's Sutton Hall at Florida College. Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park was established on the Hillsborough River directly east of the 18th green and across from where Graham often paddled a canoe to a small island in the river, where he would preach to the birds, alligators, and cypress stumps. Graham eventually graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois with a degree in anthropology in 1943.^[9]

It was during his time at Wheaton that Graham decided to accept the Bible as the infallible word of God. Henrietta Mears of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood (Hollywood, California) was instrumental in helping Graham wrestle with the issue. He settled it at Forest Home Christian camp (now called Forest Home Ministries) southeast of the Big Bear area in Southern California.^{[citation needed]} A memorial there marks the site of Graham's decision.

Family[link]

On August 13, 1943, Graham married Wheaton classmate Ruth Bell (1920–2007), whose parents were Presbyterian missionaries in China. Her father L. Nelson Bell was a general surgeon. Graham met Ruth at Wheaton: "I saw her walking down the road towards me and I couldn't help but stare at her as she walked. She looked at me and our eyes met and I felt that she was definitely the woman I wanted to marry." Ruth thought that he "wanted to please God more than any man I'd ever met."^[10] They married two months after graduation and later lived in a log cabin designed by Ruth in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Montreat, North Carolina.^[7] Ruth died on June 14, 2007, at the age of 87.

They had five children together: Virginia Leftwich (Gigi) Graham Tchividjian (born 1945; an inspirational speaker and author); Anne Graham Lotz (born 1948; runs AnGeL ministries); Ruth Graham (born 1950; founder and president of Ruth Graham & Friends, leads conferences throughout the U.S. and Canada); Franklin Graham (born 1952), who serves as president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and as president and CEO of international relief organization, Samaritan's Purse^[11]; and Nelson Edman Graham (born 1958; a pastor who runs East Gates Ministries International,^[12] which distributes Christian literature in China). Graham has 19 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. His grandson Tullian Tchividjian is senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

To ensure no one mistook his actions, Graham had a policy to avoid being alone with any woman other than his wife Ruth. This has come to be known as the Billy Graham Rule.^[13]

Ministry[link]

Career[link]

While attending college, Graham became pastor of the United Gospel Tabernacle and also had other preaching engagements.

Graham served briefly as pastor of the Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois, not far from Wheaton, in 1943-44. While there, his friend Torrey Johnson, pastor of the Midwest Bible Church in Chicago, told Graham that his radio program "Songs in the Night" was about to be canceled for lack of funding. Consulting with the members of his church in Western Springs, Graham decided to take over Johnson's program with financial support from his parishioners. Launching the new radio program on January 2, 1944, still called Songs in the Night, Graham recruited the baritone George Beverly Shea as his director of radio ministry. While the radio ministry continued for many years, Graham decided to move on in early 1945. In 1947, at age 30, he was hired as president of Northwestern Bible College in St. Paul, Minnesota, the youngest person to serve as college president. Graham served as the president of Northwestern Bible College from 1948 to 1952.^[14]

Initially, Graham intended to become a chaplain in the armed forces but, shortly after applying for a commission, contracted mumps. After a period of recuperation in Florida, Graham was hired as the first full-time evangelist of the new Youth for Christ International (YFCI), co-founded by Torrey Johnson and the Canadian evangelist Charles Templeton. Graham traveled throughout both the United States and Europe as an YFCI evangelist. Unlike many evangelists, Graham had little formal theological training. Templeton applied to Princeton Theological Seminary for an advanced theological degree and urged Graham to do so as well, but the evangelist declined. He was already serving as the president of Northwestern Bible College.^[7][14]

Hearst bubble[link]

Graham scheduled a series of revival meetings in Los Angeles in 1949, for which he erected circus tents in a parking lot.^[3] He was given national coverage by the news mogul William Randolph Hearst. Scholars such as Ben Bagdikian believe that Hearst liked Graham's patriotism and appeals to youth; he thought the evangelist would help promote Hearst's conservative anti-communist views.^[15] The scholar Randall E. King notes that Hearst and Graham never met.^[16] Hearst sent a telegram to his newspaper editors: "Puff Graham" during the Los Angeles crusade and within five days, he gained national coverage.^[16][17] With such media attention, the crusade event ran for eight weeks—five weeks longer than planned. Graham became a national figure.^[18] Henry Luce also promoted Graham with coverage at this time, and by 1954 featured him on the cover of his magazine TIME.^[19]

Crusades[link]

Since his ministry began in 1947, Graham conducted more than 400 crusades in 185 countries and territories on six continents. The first Billy Graham Crusade, held Sept. 13-21, 1947, in the Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids, Mich., was attended by 6,000 people. Graham was 29 years old. He called them crusades, after the medieval Christian forces who tried to conquer Jerusalem. He would rent a large venue, such as a stadium, park, or street. As the sessions got larger, he arranged a group of up to 5,000 people to sing in a choir. He would preach the gospel and invite people to come forward (a practice begun by Dwight L. Moody). Such people were called inquirers and were given the chance to speak one-on-one with a counselor, to clarify questions and pray together. The inquirers were often given a copy of the Gospel of John or a Bible study booklet. In Moscow in 1992, one-quarter of the 155,000 people in Graham's audience went forward at his call.^[7] During his crusades, he has frequently used the altar call song, "Just As I Am".^[20]

Graham was offered a five-year, $5 million contract from NBC to appear on television opposite Arthur Godfrey, but he turned it down in favor of continuing his touring revivals because of his prearranged commitments.^[10] Graham had missions in London, which lasted 12 weeks, and a New York City mission in Madison Square Garden in 1957, which ran nightly for 16 weeks.

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association[link]

In 1950, Graham founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association with its headquarters in Minneapolis. The association later relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. BGEA Ministries have included:

• Hour of Decision, a weekly radio program broadcast around the world for more than 50 years
• Mission television specials broadcast in almost every market in the US and Canada
• A syndicated newspaper column, My Answer, carried by newspapers across the United States and distributed by Tribune Media Services
• Decision magazine, the official publication of the Association
• Christianity Today was started in 1956 with Carl F. H. Henry as its first editor
• Passageway.org, the website for a children's program created by BGEA
• World Wide Pictures, which has produced and distributed more than 130 films

Civil rights movement[link]

Graham with Martin Luther King

Graham had shown little concern for segregation until the civil rights movement began to receive national attention in the early 1950s. Many of his early crusades were segregated. In response to the civil rights movement, Graham began to adjust his approach but was inconsistent, refusing to speak in some segregated auditoriums, while speaking to segregated audiences at others. In 1953 he tore down the ropes that organizers had erected to separate the audience into racial sections; he recounted in his memoirs that he told two ushers to leave the barriers down "or you can go on and have the revival without me.".^[21] But, he later acceded to segregated seating at Dallas, Texas and Asheville, North Carolina. He sometimes preached that the Bible said nothing about segregation,^[22] but another time warned a white audience, "we have been proud and thought we were better than any other race, any other people. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to stumble into hell because of our pride."^[23] After the 1954 US Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that public school segregation was unconstitutional, Graham insisted on integrated seating at his revivals. His inconsistent approach in the early years has led to differing assessments by historians of his career and complicated his legacy.^[24]

From the mid-1950s on, Graham became increasingly opposed to segregation and racism, while keeping his eye on public opinion. For instance, in 1957 he invited Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to join him in the pulpit at his 16-week revival in New York City, where 2.3 million gathered at Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, and Times Square to hear them.^[3] Graham never appeared publicly again with King, but he posted bail for the minister to get him released from jail in 1963 during the civil rights protests in Birmingham.^[25]

Graham's faith prompted his maturing view of race and segregation; the minister told one member of the KKK that integration was necessary primarily for religious reasons: "there is no scriptural basis for segregation," Graham argued, "The ground at the foot of the cross is level, and it touches my heart when I see whites standing shoulder to shoulder with blacks at the cross."^[26]

Later years[link]

Graham with his son, Franklin, at Cleveland Stadium, June 1994

Graham's visibility and popularity extended into the secular world. He created his own pavilion for the 1964 New York World's Fair.^[27] He appeared as a guest on a 1969 Woody Allen television special, where he joined the comedian in a witty exchange on theological matters.^[28] During the Cold War, Graham became the first evangelist of note to speak behind the Iron Curtain, addressing large crowds in countries throughout Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, calling for peace.^[29] During the Apartheid era, Graham consistently refused to visit South Africa until its government allowed integrated seating for audiences. During his first crusade there in 1973, he openly denounced apartheid.^{[citation needed]}

Billy Graham at the Feyenoord-stadion in Rotterdam, The Netherlands (June 30, 1955)

In 1984, he led a series of summer meetings in the United Kingdom, called Mission England, using outdoor football grounds as venues.

Graham was interested in fostering evangelism around the world. In 1983, 1986 and 2000 he sponsored, organized and paid for massive training conferences for Christian evangelists from around the world; with the largest representations of nations ever held until that time. Over 157 nations were gathered in 2000 at the RAI Convention Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. At one revival in Seoul, South Korea, Graham attracted more than one million people to a single service.^[10] He appeared in China in 1988—for Ruth, this was a homecoming, since she had been born in China to missionary parents. He appeared in North Korea in 1992.^[26]

On September 22, 1991 Graham held his largest event in North America on the Great Lawn of New York's Central Park. City officials estimated more than 250,000 in attendance. In 1998, Graham spoke at TED (conference) to a crowd of scientists and philosophers.

On September 14, 2001, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Graham was invited to lead a service at Washington National Cathedral, which was attended by President George W. Bush and past and present leaders. He also spoke at the memorial service following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.^[26] On June 24–26, 2005, Billy Graham began what he has said would be his last North American crusade, three days at the Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City. But on the weekend of March 11–12, 2006, Billy Graham held the "Festival of Hope" with his son, Franklin Graham. The festival was held in New Orleans, which was recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Retirement[link]

Graham said that his planned retirement was because of his failing health. He has suffered from Parkinson's disease for about 15 years, has had hydrocephalus, pneumonia, broken hips, and prostate cancer. In August 2005, Graham appeared at the groundbreaking for his library in Charlotte, North Carolina. Then 86, Reverend Graham used a walker during the ceremony. On July 9, 2006, Graham spoke at the Metro Maryland Franklin Graham Festival, held in Baltimore, Maryland, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

There had been controversy over his proposed burial place; he announced in June 2007 that he and his wife would be buried alongside each other at the Billy Graham Library in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. Graham's younger son Ned had argued with older son Franklin about whether burial at a library would be appropriate. Ruth Graham had said that she wanted to be buried not in Charlotte but in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, where she had lived for many years; Ned supported his mother's choice.^[30] Novelist Patricia Cornwell, a family friend, also opposed burial at the library, calling it a tourist attraction. Franklin wanted his parents to be buried at the library site.^[30] At the time of Ruth Graham's death, it was announced that they would be buried at the library site.

Graham has been admitted to the hospital for treatment in 2007 and 2011.^[31][32]

In April 2010, Graham, at 91 and with substantial vision and hearing loss, made a rare public appearance at the re-dedication of the renovated Billy Graham Library.^[33]

Billy Graham has preached Christianity to live audiences of nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories through various meetings, including BMS World Mission and Global Mission. Graham has also reached hundreds of millions more through television, video, film, and webcasts.^[34]

Politics[link]

Politically, Graham is a registered member of the Democratic Party.^[35] He leaned Republican during the presidency of Richard Nixon.^[16] He did not completely ally himself with the religious right, saying that Jesus did not have a political party.^[7] He did not openly endorse political candidates, but he gave his support to some over the years.^[16]

He refused to join Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in 1979, saying: "I'm for morality, but morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice. We as clergy know so very little to speak with authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments. Evangelists cannot be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people, right and left. I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future."^[26]

According to a 2006 Newsweek interview, "For Graham, politics is a secondary to the Gospel.... When Newsweek asked Graham whether ministers—whether they think of themselves as evangelists, pastors or a bit of both—should spend time engaged with politics, he replied: 'You know, I think in a way that has to be up to the individual as he feels led of the Lord. A lot of things that I commented on years ago would not have been of the Lord, I'm sure, but I think you have some—like communism, or segregation, on which I think you have a responsibility to speak out.'".^[36]

Pastor to presidents[link]

President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan greet Graham at the National Prayer Breakfast of 1981

Graham has had a personal audience with many sitting US presidents from Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama. Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton sought his counsel, as did the Bush family.^[18] After meeting with Truman in 1950, Graham told the press he had urged the president to counter communism in North Korea. Later he always treated his conversations with presidents as confidential.^[16] Truman disliked him and did not speak with him for years after that meeting.^[7] Graham was criticized by some for being too attracted to the seat of political power.

Merle Miller quotes Truman on Graham in his oral biography Plain Speaking:

But now we've got just this one evangelist, this Billy Graham, and he's gone off the beam. He's...well, I hadn’t ought to say this, but he’s one of those counterfeits I was telling you about. He claims he's a friend of all the Presidents, but he was never a friend of mine when I was President. I just don’t go for people like that. All he's interested in is getting his name in the paper.^[37]

Graham became a regular visitor during the tenure of Dwight D. Eisenhower. He purportedly urged him to intervene with federal troops in the case of the Little Rock Nine to gain admission of black students to public schools.^[7] At that time he met and would become close friends with Vice President Richard Nixon.^[16] After a special law was passed in 1952, Graham conducted the first religious service on the steps of the Capitol building.^[7] Eisenhower asked for Graham while on his deathbed.^[38]

The preacher enjoyed a friendship with Nixon and supported him over Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.^[7] Graham was more sympathetic to Republican administrations.^[16][39] He spent the last night of Johnson's presidency in the White House, and he stayed for the first night of Nixon's.^[38]

After Nixon's victorious 1968 presidential campaign, Graham became an adviser, regularly visiting the White House and leading the president's private worship services.^[16] In a meeting they had with Golda Meir, Nixon offered Graham the ambassadorship to Israel, but he refused.^[7] In 1970 Nixon appeared at a Graham revival in East Tennessee, which they thought safe politically. It drew one of the largest crowds in Tennessee and protesters against the Vietnam War. Nixon was the first president to give a speech from an evangelist's platform.^[16] Their friendship became strained in 1973 when Graham rebuked Nixon for his post-Watergate behavior and the profanity heard on the Watergate tapes;^[40] they eventually reconciled after Nixon's resignation.^[16]