This article or section appears to contradict itself about when the smiley was first used. Please see the talk page for more information. (April 2012)

Smiley
First appearance	1963
Created by	Harvey Ball[1]

A smiley, smiley face, or happy face, :) or :D is a stylized representation of a smiling humanoid face, commonly occurring in popular culture. It is commonly represented as a yellow (many other colors are also used) circle (or sphere) with two black dots representing eyes and a black arc representing the mouth. “Smiley” is also sometimes used as a generic term for any emoticon.

The variant spelling "smilie" is not as common,^[2] but the plural form "smilies" is commonly used.^[3]

Popularization[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)

The first happy face recorded on film can be seen in Ingmar Bergman's 1948 film "Hamnstad". Later on, in 1953 and 1958, the happy face was used in promotional campaigns for motion pictures Lili and Gigi, respectively.

First use of happy face in a campaign for the film Lili in 1953

The happy face was first introduced to popular culture in 1958 when the WMCA radio station in New York ran a competition for the most popular radio show at the time, 'Cousin Brucie'. Listeners who answered their phone 'WMCA Good Guys!' were rewarded with a 'Good Guys!' sweatshirt that incorporated a happy face into its design. Thousands of these sweatshirts were given away during the late 1950s.

In 1963 Harvey Ball, an American commercial artist, was employed by State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, Massachusetts (now known as Hanover Insurance) to create a happy face to raise the morale of the employees. Ball created the design in ten minutes and was paid 45 dollars. His rendition, with bright yellow background, dark oval eyes, and creases at the sides of the mouth, was imprinted on more than fifty million buttons and was familiar around the world. The design is so simple that it is certain that similar versions were produced before 1963, but Ball’s rendition as described here became the most iconic version.^[4][5]

In 1967, Ball's design was used in an advertising campaign for Seattle-based University Federal Savings & Loan. This was later used when the man behind this campaign, David Stern, ran for Seattle Mayor in 1993.^[5]

In 1972, Franklin Loufrani introduced the happy face to a European audience, giving it the name "Smiley". On January 1 the 'take the time to smiley' promotion was launched in the French newspaper 'France Soir'. The Smiley logo was used to highlight all good news so people could choose to read positive and uplifting articles.^[6]

The graphic was popularized in the early 1970s by Philadelphia brothers Bernard and Murray Spain, who seized upon it in September 1970 in a campaign to sell novelty items. The two produced buttons as well as coffee mugs, t-shirts, bumper stickers and many other items emblazoned with the symbol and the phrase "Have a happy day" (devised by Gyula Bogar) which mutated into "have a nice day". Working with New York button manufacturer NG Slater, some 50 million happy face badges were produced by 1972.^[7]

In the 1970s, the happy face (and the accompanying 'have a nice day' mantra) is also said to have become a zombifying hollow sentiment, emblematic of Nixon-era America and the passing from the optimism of the Summer of Love into the more cynical decade that followed. This motif is evidenced in the era of "paranoid soul" such as "Smiling Faces Sometimes" (released by The Temptations in April 1971, and by The Undisputed Truth in July 1971), "I'll Take You There" (The Staples Singers, 1972), "Don't Call Me Brother" (The O'Jays, 1973), "Back Stabbers" (The O'Jays), and "You Caught Me Smilin'" (Sly and the Family Stone, 1971).^[7] The origins of this was parodied in a famous scene from the movie Forrest Gump when Forrest is on his multiple jogs across America, and wipes his face on a T shirt given him by a struggling salesman, and on the shirt, as if transferred there by Forrest's face, is the image of the happy face, whereupon the man gets his idea.

In the UK, the happy face has been associated with psychedelic culture since Ubi Dwyer and the Windsor Free Festival in the 1970s and the dance music culture that emerged during the second summer of love in the late 1980s. The association was cemented when the band Bomb The Bass used an extracted smiley from Watchmen on the centre of its Beat Dis hit single.

Usage in telecommunications[link]

The smiley is the printable version of characters 1 and 2 of (black-and-white versions of) codepage 437 (1981) of the first IBM PC and all subsequent PC compatible computers. For modern computers, all versions of Microsoft Windows after Windows 95^[8] can use the smiley as part of Windows Glyph List 4, although some computer fonts miss some characters, and some characters cannot be reproduced by programs not compatible with Unicode.^[9] It also appears in Unicode's Basic Multilingual Plane.^[10]

Licensing and legal issues[link]

A satirical use of the smiley at the 2010 Rally to Restore Sanity.

French journalist Franklin Loufrani registered the iconic smiley face image as a trademark in France in 1971, and he created "The Smiley Licensing Corporation, Ltd." to sell, license, and advertise the smiley face image in the United Kingdom and Europe. In 2001 the name of Loufrani's company was changed to SmileyWorld, which has managed to register the symbol in over 100 countries (not including the USA) for 25 classes of goods and services.^[11]

In 1999, Harvey Ball belatedly formed his own "World Smile Corporation" and began licensing his particular rendering of the happy face to fund charitable causes.^[12] Profits are distributed to charities through the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation, which also sponsors the annual World Smile Day Ball started in 1999 to encourage "acts of kindness."^[13]

In 1997, Franklin Loufrani and Smiley World attempted to acquire trademark rights to the symbol (and even to the word "smiley" itself) in the United States. This brought Loufrani into conflict with Wal-Mart, which had begun prominently featuring a happy face in its "Rolling Back Prices" campaign over a year earlier. Wal-Mart responded first by trying to block Loufrani's application, then later by trying to register the smiley face themselves; Loufrani in turn sued to stop Wal-Mart's application, and in 2002 the issue went to court,^[14] where it would languish for seven years before a decision.

Wal-mart began phasing out the smiley face on its vests^[15] and its website^[16] in 2006. Despite that, Wal-Mart sued an online parodist for alleged "trademark infringement" after he used the symbol (as well as various portmanteaus of "Wal-," such as "Walocaust"); and they lost that case in March 2008, when the judge declared that the smiley face is not a "distinctive" mark, and therefore cannot be trademarked by anyone—and thus, Wal-Mart has no claim to it.^[17]

In June 2011, Wal Mart and the Smiley company of Brussels founded by Loufrani settled their 10-year old dispute in front of the Chicago federal court. The terms remain confidential. ^[18]

See also[link]

• Emoticon
• Galle (Martian crater)
• Acid2
• History of the Acid House Smiley Face

References[link]

vep:Smailut

Pacha Man (born Călin Nicorici, 21 July 1976 in Timişoara, Romania) is a reggae musician. He is one of the first Romanian artists to pursue a career as a reggae artist and the first to release a professionally produced album in this genre. He is well known for his aggressive style and trademark Patois-Romanian mixture approach to songwriting.^[1]

Biography[link]

Pacha Man was born in 1976 in Timişoara, Romania, the city where he also spent most of his childhood. His father emigrated to Canada in 1980, leaving a young Pacha Man with a diminishing interest in education and an eager wish to earn his existence. He followed his father's footsteps at the age of 14, in 1990, when he left for Canada, a country that would become his home for the next seven years while he also spent various amounts of time in New York and Miami. He got his start in writing lyrics and making music while observing the African immigrants' habits in Canada and the United States. He returned to Romania in 1997, father of one with his first wife, a Colombian immigrant he met while living in Canada. He also studied law for 3 years in New York.^[2] While in the United States, Nicorici was incarcerated for 3 years for robbery and assault after which he was deported back to Romania in 1997.

Career[link]

In the 1990s Romania, a country that had just overthrown its communist dictatorship, witnessed an explosion of popular music from Western culture as the youth quickly gained its access to information. The hip hop industry was at an all time high by the time Pacha Man returned to Romania in 1997. He started emceeing in a club in his native Timişoara and quickly gained the public's attention for his innovative and refreshing style. One of his Timişoara friends was a club disk jockey going by the name of DJ Angelo. He suggested Pacha Man, derived from the Turkish military rank pasha, would be perfect as a stage name for the 21-year old Nicorici, as he drew a considerable female audience in his early years. He recorded and released his debut album, Globul De Cristal (The Crystal Globe) in 1998 and, although the album was an independent, self-produced material, it created enough buzz around Pacha Man, enabling him to set many contacts in the Romanian music industry. He collaborated with hip hop veterans B.U.G. Mafia on their 2000 album Întotdeauna pentru totdeauna and in 2002 signed with hip hop powerhouse Rebel Music. While on Rebel Music, he released his second album, Drumul Către Rastafari (The Road To Rastafari), one of the highest regarded reggae albums ever released in Romania. The album was supported by the hit single Acelaşi Sânge (One Blood), a reggae-style social protest that catapulted him to superstardom. In 2004 he left Rebel Music and released his third album, Contra Curentului (Against The Stream), in 2006 via Nova Music. Zale member and producer Jaques Yolo produced the supporting single of the album, Crazy, making his affiliation with the band's label, Chill Brothers Records, public. He signed with Chill Brothers Records in 2007, but has since left the label without releasing any new material.^[3] In 2010 Pacha Man collaborated with Romanian R&B artist Smiley for his solo album Plec Pe Marte (I'm Leaving For Mars) on a track named "Love Is For Free". He also recorded a verse for Romanian hip hop group Paraziţii's 2010 album Tot Ce E Bun Tre' Să Dispară (Everything That's Good Is Gotta Go) but the song did not make the album.

Discography[link]

• Globul De Cristal (The Crystal Globe) (1998)
• Drumul Către Rastafari (The Road To Rastafari) (2003)
• Contra Curentului (Against The Stream) (2006)
• Dragoste Sau Frica (2011)

See also[link]

• Romanian hip hop

References[link]

1. ^ Pacha Man – Hip – Hop – afterPARTY!. Afterparty.ro. Retrieved on 2012-06-01.
2. ^ Pacha Man are doi copii, pe doua continente | Jurnalul National. Jurnalul.ro (2005-06-07). Retrieved on 2012-06-01.
3. ^ Raluca Grintescu. Pacha Man este nebun de legat | Jurnalul National. Jurnalul.ro (2005-09-09). Retrieved on 2012-06-01.

Shane Dawson
Dawson at the Streamy Awards in 2010
Born	Shane Lee Yaw (1988-07-19) July 19, 1988 (age 23) Long Beach, California, U.S.
Occupation	YouTube video maker (actor, comedian)
Years active	2008–present
Known for	Sketch comedy, vlogging
Website
www.shanedawsontv.com

Shane Dawson (born Shane Yaw; July 19, 1988)^[1][2][3] is an American YouTube actor, comedian, and musician. Dawson is known for making comedy videos featuring many recurring characters (such as Shananay, Ned the Nerd, S. Deezy, Mom, and Aunt Hilda), impersonations (such as Paris Hilton, Miley Cyrus and Sarah Palin), and spoofs of popular music videos and television shows. As of September 2011 his main YouTube channel is the fifth most subscribed channel of all time, behind Ray William Johnson, Nigahiga, Smosh, and Machinima.com.^[4][5][6] Dawson has since expanded on YouTube by adding his second channel (twelfth most subscribed)^[4] where he posts video blogs and the series "Ask Shane", which moved to his main channel February 26, 2011.^[7]

Dawson's career began when he and several friends would turn in videos instead of homework in high school. Dawson's first videos on YouTube were old assignments that he turned in during high school.^[8][9]

In November 2009, Dawson was featured on Attack of the Show!^[10] In 2010, Forbes magazine named him their 25th most famous web celebrity.^[3]

Dawson's debut mainstream single (third overall), SUPERLUV! was released on March 31, 2012.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Dawson grew up in Long Beach, California, where he attended Lakewood High School.^[12] Dawson has revealed in a video, that as a teenager he was over-weight and would get bullied a lot, as well as being beaten by his alcoholic father, who then abandoned the family. He has since lost 150 pounds. Shane has three dogs, Miley, Charlie, and Chocolate as well as two cats, Muffins and Snoop. They often appear in his videos. He used to work in Jenny Craig, Inc. along with his mother and brother, but was fired after he uploaded a video of himself pole dancing in the building he worked in. His mother, brother and about 6 other coworkers who appeared in the video also got fired after the company saw the video.^[13] In a video he said he is a virgin, and plans to stay one until he is married as he believes strongly in sex after marriage.^[14] Shane Dawson revealed in a video that he and an unknown female broke up from their relationship, which lasted about a year.^[15] He decided to not release the female's identity in order to preserve her from getting negative criticism. In March 2012, Dawson stated that he was in a relationship with fellow YouTuber, Lisa Schwartz.^[16]

Dawson currently resides in Sherman Oaks, California.^[17]

YouTube channels[link]

Dawson posts new videos on his main channel, ShaneDawsonTV, every Saturday and video blogs on his second channel, ShaneDawsonTV2, throughout the week.^[18] Every Monday, posted on his second channel, he also has an "Ask Shane" webseries where he answers questions from his viewers. This series is similar to a previous web series, "Viewer Orgy Party", which currently only airs approximately once a month. His third YouTube channel, Shane, is where he posts unedited videos directly from his iPhone. He began using this channel in May, 2010. Starting in 2012 Shane had announced he would be making daily blogs (video blog) on his iPhone channel. He has also begun a new series called "Shane and Friends" on his main channel which he does once every month. This series includes him giving advice and talking as basically all his characters. Shane often collaborates with other YouTubers or appears in their videos, such as BrittaniLouiseTaylor, TheFineBros, JoeNationTV, and ijustine.

In August 2010, he announced that he was going to write a television pilot and post it on his main channel, featuring himself and his characters from previous videos, about him in high school.

Television projects[link]

On August 11, 2010, Dawson announced that he was in the making of a 30-minute pilot which he will call SD High. Previously, the funding he needed for the pilot was provided by digital media group Take180 after he helped them out with acting in their own videos.^[19] The pilot is based on two previous videos which Dawson uploaded to his main channel in Summer 2010. In his previous videos, the story centers around a teenage boy in school, and his interactions with the other characters. The pilot was due to be released towards the end of September 2010 on his main YouTube Channel, however Dawson later announced that he had been contacted by a television studio to produce the pilot for their TV channel(s).^[20] According to Dawson, there is some uncertainty involving the pilot, however it may be a TV show in the future.^[21] On March 26, 2011, Dawson uploaded a video to YouTube explaining to his audience that he's working with Happy Madison Productions, Sony Pictures, and some other YouTubers including TheFineBros and BrittaniLouiseTaylor to create the television show.^[22] The video contains an explanation from Dawson about what he's working on, and a 'mock trailer', made up of clips from previous episodes on his YouTube channel, for the show.

In January 2012, Dawson stated in a video that he was now working on a new television show, which would be semi-based on his life working at a Weight Loss center. He stated that he would be pitching the show soon, and that he was "really excited" for it, and stated the show was "kind of like Arrested Development, but - not."^[23] Recently, Shane, on May 16, 2012, announced in his daily vlog that he was working on a professional horror-comedy movie. "I want to write something like a teen comedy but like scary and fun," said Dawson in the vlog, Day 96.

Music projects[link]

In 2012, Dawson revealed in his Vlogs that he was working on a music project. In March 2012, Dawson revealed that his debut mainstream single, SUPERLUV! would be released that month. The song was released on March 31, 2012 on iTunes, with an accompanying music video debuting on his YouTube channel on the same day. The song managed to chart at 87 in Ireland, 16 on the UK Indie Chart and reached the 28th spot on the US iTunes Pop Chart.

On May 8, 2012, Dawson revealed in a video that he has begun working on his next original song, which is tentatively titled The Vacation Song. He previewed about 10 seconds of the "rough edit" of the song, and stated that he was going to change the mood of the song, saying, "Right now, it's a little too happy, because it's a break up song. I want it to be more like Kelly Clarkson's Since You've Been Gone." He stated that the song would "hopefully" be released by the beginning of June 2012.^[24]

Major productions[link]

• Hot Teens Gone Wild on Degrassi! Part 1 - November 21, 2009 (11-minute long special)
• Hot Teens Go Wild on Degrassi! Part 2 - March 6, 2010 (12-minute long special)
• SD High: School Dance Disaster - July 3, 2010 (SD High Episode 1) (8-minute long special)
• SD High: High School Drama - July 31, 2010 (SD High Episode 2) (9-minute long special)
• Haunted House Party - October 30, 2010 (Interactive Halloween special)
• Shane Dawson's Love Story - December 18, 2010 (10-minute long Christmas special)
• SD High: Teens Gone Wild - March 26, 2011 (SD High Episode 3) (7-minute long special)
• Final Destination: The Game - July 2, 2011 (Interactive special based on the Final Destination film series )
• Friends 4Ever - October 29, 2011 (22-minute long Halloween short film)
• How Shananay Stole Christmas - December 17, 2011 (15-minute long Christmas special)

Dawson will play a character named Binder in the upcoming feature-length horror film, Smiley (directed by YouTuber Michael Gallagher and produced by Level 10 Films) which has finished filming and is currently in post-production. It will be released in theaters and DVD in 2012.^[25]

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

Note: These are only songs Shane has released officially to iTunes as singles. He has also released a set of ringtones on iTunes, also available to download as tracks, and he releases all his parodies free on a media sharing website.

Awards and nominations[link]

Dawson has been nominated for various awards.^[26] On August 9, 2010, Dawson won the award for Choice Web Star at the 2010 Teen Choice Awards. Although the category was not featured at the awards show, Dawson stated in a video that he posted to YouTube the next day that "It was just great to be nominated and at the show itself". The nominees for that category included fellow YouTubers Justine Ezarik, Charles Trippy, Lucas Cruikshank, best known for his Fred character, and singer Greyson Chance. Dawson was nominated for Choice Web Star in the 2011 Teen Choice Awards, but lost to Rebecca Black.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Shane Dawson at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Website
• ShaneDawsonTV, Shane Dawson's YouTube channel

Keith David
David in June 2010
Born	Keith David Williams (1956-06-04) June 4, 1956 (age 56) Harlem, New York, U.S.
Education	Juilliard (BFA 1979)
Occupation	actor, singer
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Dionne Lea Williams (actress/singer)

Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956), better known as Keith David, is an American film, television, voice actor, and singer. He is perhaps most known for his live-action roles in such films as Crash, There's Something About Mary, Barbershop and Men at Work. He has also had memorable roles in numerous cult favorites, including John Carpenter's films The Thing (as Childs) and They Live (as Armitage), the Riddick films Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick (as the Imam), the General in Armageddon, King in Oliver Stone's Platoon, and Big Tim in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream.

David is also well known for his voice-over career, primarily his Emmy winning work as the narrator of numerous Ken Burns films. Characters that he has voiced include Goliath on the Disney series Gargoyles, Spawn/Al Simmons on Todd McFarlane's "Spawn: The Animated Series" which aired on HBO, the Arbiter in Halo 2 and Halo 3, David Anderson in the Mass Effect series, the Decepticon Barricade in Transformers: The Game, Julius Little in Saints Row and Saints Row 2, Sgt. Foley in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog, the Flame King in Adventure Time, and Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.

Early life and education[link]

David was born in Harlem, New York City, and raised in Corona, Queens, New York, the son of Delores (née Dickenson) and Lester Williams.^[1] He first knew he was going to become an actor after playing the Cowardly Lion in a school production of The Wizard of Oz and went on to study at Manhattan's School of Performing Arts. He attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division (1975-1979, Group 8)^[2] where he graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in 1979.^[3]

Film and television acting[link]

In 1980–81, David honed his craft touring the country with John Houseman's The Acting Company in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot. Less than two years later he went on to star as Childs, opposite Kurt Russell in John Carpenter's The Thing, and his lengthy on-screen career had begun. In the '80s run of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, he portrayed Keith the Southwood Carpenter in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe segments. He also played Keith, the game coin collector in an episode where Rogers and a small child learn to play the arcade game Donkey Kong.

He went on to appear in films such as Oliver Stone's Platoon, They Live (reuniting with The Thing director, John Carpenter), Road House, Men at Work, Marked for Death, and Stars and Bars. He played the character of Kirby, the one legged war veteran, in the acclaimed 1995 Hughes Brothers film Dead Presidents, and he appeared in the 1995 Spike Lee's film Clockers, and followed this up with roles in big films such as Volcano, Armageddon, There's Something About Mary, Pitch Black, Barbershop, Agent Cody Banks, The Chronicles of Riddick, Crash, ATL, Delta Farce, and First Sunday. He also portrayed "Father" in the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. At the same time he has appeared in numerous independent films including the critically acclaimed Requiem for a Dream, playing the role of Big Tim. He has also appeared extensively in TV productions since the 1980s and as a regular character Lieutenant Williams on the short-lived TV series The Job. He was a regular on another shoot made for ABC entitled The Big House in 2004. David played the male lead role in Deon Taylor's slasher flick Chain Letter.^[4]

Recently, he played Max Malini on the NBC TV Show The Cape. On April 18, 2011, Keith appeared in the 21st episode of season one of Hawaii Five-0 as criminal tycoon Jimmy Cannon.

Voice acting[link]

Although recognized for his roles in film and television, he remains in great demand for vocal work because of his deep, resonant voice. He is known most notably as the voice behind Goliath from Gargoyles and the title character in the Spawn animated series. In the English dub of Princess Mononoke, David played the narrator and Okkoto. He also played the small roll of Mama in the English dub of 3x3 Eyes. Additionally, he provided the voice for the character Decker in the role-playing video game Fallout and the voice for the character Vhailor in Planescape: Torment. David provided the voice of the Arbiter for the video game Halo 2, released in 2004; later, he reprised that role in the Xbox 360 follow-up, Halo 3. He played the role of Captain David Anderson in BioWare's Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3. David also did voice work in the Xbox 360 title Saint's Row playing gang leader Julius, who also appeared at the end of Saints Row 2. David can be heard on the intro of several Ice Cube projects, including Westside Connection's 2003 release, Terrorist Threats, Cube's 2008 solo album Raw Footage, Cube's 2010 solo album I Am The West, and he narrated the documentary Beef II, which also featured Ice Cube. The two have worked together in live action films like Barbershop and First Sunday.

Keith David also provides the voice for the UPS "What Can Brown Do for You" commercials. His voice can be heard in the Justice League cartoons. He has also done voice work for early "Adult Swim" commercials for "Inuyasha".^[5]

He has worked with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns several times, narrating Burns's Jazz, Mark Twain, The War, and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. David won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work in the latter two films. He performs the narration duties in the BBC documentary, World War II: Behind Closed Doors.^[6] The 2005 History Channel documentary Crusades: Crescent & the Cross focusing on the medieval Crusades was also narrated by him. David parodied his documentary work by narrating the 2012 episode of the NBC sitcom Community "Pillows and Blankets", a mockumentary revolving around a pillow fight between rival blanket forts.

David is popular in advertising, particularly in United States Navy recruitment commercials. He has done voice-over work for many other documentaries including several for National Geographic and the documentary Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked for the History Channel. He replaced Paul Winfield as narrator for the popular A&E show City Confidential. taking over after Winfield's death in 2004. He voiced the trailer for the movie Primeval, which was released in the U.S. on January 12, 2007.

Additionally, David provided the voice of police detective Alex Cross for the audiobook versions of three novels by James Patterson: Cat and Mouse (1997), Pop Goes the Weasel (1999), and Roses are Red (2000).

Other voice roles include Bebe Proud Clone from The Proud Family Movie, Atlas from the Teen Titans animated series, the lone renegade male gorilla "Tublat" in The Legend of Tarzan, and the Decepticon Barricade in Transformers: The Game,

He recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's "Hip-Hop Literacy" campaign. David has done voiceovers for promos on the Versus Network, particularly for college football. He also recorded the narration for the opening of the World Wrestling Federation's (now Entertainment) WrestleMania 2000 pay-per-view.

Recently, David did the voices of the Black Cat in Coraline, Sgt. Foley in Modern Warfare 2, and Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog. David voiced Tombstone for only one episode from The Spectacular Spider-Man, "Survival of the Fittest".

On Sunday, May 25, 2008, David narrated Kansas City's Celebration at the Station, a Memorial Day service held annually at the World War I Memorial across from Union Station. During the ceremony, he announced the attendance of Frank W. Buckles, the last living veteran of World War I.

He was also the voice of Frederick Douglass in the third episode of the PBS documentary "God in America: How Religious Liberty Shaped America" in 2010.

On April 1, 2012, David performed the voiceover for the intro to WWE Wrestlemania XXVIII.

Stage acting[link]

In 1992, David received a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his performance in Jelly's Last Jam. David received raves for his Shakespeare work on stage in Central Park, New York City.

In 1995, David played the lead as Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton in August Wilson's Seven Guitars on Broadway.

In May 2006, he appeared in the musical Hot Feet on Broadway in New York.

Filmography[link]

Films and Television[link]

• Disco Godfather (1979) (uncredited)
• The Thing (1982)
• Terror in the Aisles (1984)
• Platoon (1986)
• Hot Pursuit (1987)
• Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988)
• Off Limits (1988)
• Stars and Bars (1988)
• Bird (1988)
• They Live (1988)
• Road House (1989)
• Always (1989)
• Men at Work (1990)
• Marked for Death (1990)
• Final Analysis (1992)
• Article 99 (1992)
• Nails (1992)
• The Last Outlaw (1993)
• There Are No Children Here (1993)
• Reality Bites (1994)
• The Puppet Masters (1994)
• Clockers (1995)
• Dead Presidents (1995)
• The Quick and the Dead (1995)
• Blue in the Face (1995)
• Loose Women (1996) (cameo)
• The Grave (1996)
• Eye for an Eye (1996)
• Larger Than Life (1996)
• Never Met Picasso (1996)
• Johns (1996)
• Vanishing Point (1997)
• Flipping (1997)
• Volcano (1997)
• Executive Target (1997)
• Murder, She Wrote: South by Southwest (1997)
• Don King: Only in America (1997)
• The Tiger Woods Story (1998)
• Armageddon (1998)
• There's Something About Mary (1998)
• A.T.F. (1999)
• Dark Summer (a.k.a. Innocents) (2000)
• Pitch Black (2000)
• Requiem for a Dream (2000)
• Where the Heart Is (2000)
• The Replacements (2000)
• Semper Fi (2001)
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
• Novocaine (2001)
• Pretty When You Cry (2001)
• 29 Palms (2002)
• Barbershop (2002)
• Agent Cody Banks (2003)
• Head of State (2003)
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2003)
• Hollywood Homicide (2003)
• Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004)
• The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
• Crash (2004)
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
• Transporter 2 (2005)
• Dirty (2005)
• The Oh in Ohio (2006)
• Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil (2006)
• ATL (2006)
• If I Had Known I Was a Genius (2007)
• Delta Farce (2007)
• The Last Sentinel (2007)
• Beautiful Loser (2008)
• First Sunday (2008)
• Superhero Movie (2008)
• Chasing 3000 (2008)
• My Mom's New Boyfriend (2008)
• The Fifth Commandment (2008)
• No Bad Days (2008)
• The Sensei (2008)
• Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia (2009)
• Against the Dark (2009)
• Charlie Valentine (2009)
• Don McKay (2009)
• Coraline (2009)
• The Butcher (2009)
• The Princess and the Frog (2009)
• Gamer (2009)
• All About Steve (2009)
• Pastor Brown (2010)
• Death at a Funeral (2010)
• Lottery Ticket (2010)
• Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming (2010)
• Chain Letter (2010)
• The Cape (2010)
• Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
• Meet Monica Velour (2010)
• Spork (2010)
• The Book of Matthew (2011)
• The Inheritance (2011)
• Cloud Atlas (2012)
• Smiley (2012)

Voice work[link]

• Ringing Bell (1978-1983) - Narrator (English version)
• Christmas in Tattertown (1988) - Saxophone / Additional Voices
• 3x3 Eyes (1991)
• Aladdin (1994) Minos (ep. Seems Like Old Crimes)
• Fantastic Four (1995) - Black Panther
• Gargoyles (1994–1997) - Goliath, Thailog, Officer Morgan
• Hercules (1997) - Apollo
• Todd McFarlane's Spawn (1997) - Spawn/Al Simmons
• Fallout (1997) - Decker
• Hercules: The Animated Series (1998) - Apollo
• Planescape: Torment (1999) - Vhailor
• Princess Mononoke (1999) - Okkoto/Okkotonushi
• WrestleMania 2000 (2000) - Opening Video Voiceover
• The Legend of Tarzan (2001) - Tublat
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) - Council Member #1
• Jazz (2001) - Narrator
• House of Mouse (2001–2002) - Mufasa
• Lords of EverQuest (2003) - Lord Vekk
• Justice League (2003) - Despero
• Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (2003) - Agent Mosely
• Kaena: The Prophecy (2003) - Voxem
• Westside Connection:Terrorist Threats (intro) (2003) - feat. in "A Threat to the World", "Potential Victims", "Gangsta Nation"
• Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites (2003)
• Beef II (2004) - Narrator
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (2004) - Imam
• Teen Titans (2004) - Atlas (ep. "Only Human")
• Halo 2 (2004) - the Arbiter
• City Confidential (2004) - Narrator
• The Proud Family Movie (2005) - Bebe Proud Clone
• Saints Row (2006) - Julius
• Transformers: The Game (2007) - Barricade
• Halo 3 (2007) - the Arbiter
• Mass Effect (2007) - David Anderson
• The War (2007) - Narrator
• Justice League: The New Frontier (2008) - The Centre
• The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008) - Tombstone (1st Time)
• Ice Cube: Raw Footage (intro) (2008) - feat. in "What Is a Pyroclastic Flow?", "Hood Mentality", "Jack N the Box", "Get Use to It", "Take Me Away"
• Saints Row 2 (2008) - Julius
• Coraline (2009) - The cat
• World War II: Behind Closed Doors (2009) - Narrator
• The Princess and the Frog (2009) - Dr. Facilier
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) - Sergeant Foley
• Dissidia Final Fantasy (2009) - Chaos
• Mass Effect 2 (2010) - David Anderson
• Ken Burns' Baseball: The Tenth Inning (2010) - Narrator
• Ice Cube: I Am the West (2010) - feat. in "Too West Coast"
• Episode 3 (2010) - Frederick Douglass
• Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy (2011) - Chaos
• WWE The True Story of WrestleMania (2011) - Narrator
• Allen Gregory (2011) - Carl Trent
• Adventure Time (2012) - Flame King
• Mass Effect 3 (2012) - David Anderson
• Young Justice (2012) - Despero
• WWE WrestleMania XXVIII (2012) - Narrator^[7]
• Community (2012) - Narrator

Further reading[link]

• Voisin, Scott. Character Kings: Hollywood's Familiar Faces Discuss the Art & Business of Acting. BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN 978-1-59393-342-5

References[link]

External links[link]

• Keith David at the Internet Movie Database
• Keith David at the Internet Broadway Database

Tavis Smiley
Tavis Smiley, 2011
Born	(1964-09-13) September 13, 1964 (age 47) Gulfport, Mississippi United States
Education	Indiana University (B.A., public affairs, 2003)
Occupation	Talk show host Author Entrepreneur Advocate Philanthropist
Notable credit(s)	Tavis Smiley host (2004–present) The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI (radio) host (2005–present) "Smiley & West" co-host (2010–present) BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley host (1996–2001)
Religion	Christian
Website
http://www.tavistalks.com/

Tavis Smiley (pronounced /ˈtævɨs/; born September 13, 1964) is a talk show host, author, liberal political commentator, entrepreneur, advocate and philanthropist.^[1][2] Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, and grew up in Kokomo, Indiana. After attending Indiana University, he worked during the late 1980s as an aide to Tom Bradley, the mayor of Los Angeles. Smiley became a radio commentator in 1991, and starting in 1996, he hosted the talk show BET Talk (later renamed BET Tonight) on BET. Controversially, after Smiley sold an exclusive interview of Sara Jane Olson to ABC News in 2001, BET declined to renew Smiley's contract that year. Smiley then began hosting The Tavis Smiley Show on NPR from 2002 to 2004 and currently hosts Tavis Smiley on PBS on the weekdays and "The Tavis Smiley Show" from PRI. In 2010 Smiley and Dr. Cornel West have joined forces for their own radio talk show, Smiley & West. They were featured together interviewing musician Bill Withers in the 2009 documentary film Still Bill.^[3]

Early years[link]

Tavis Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, the son of Joyce Marie Roberts, a single mother who first became pregnant at age 18.^[4] On September 13, 1966, just shy of his second birthday, his mother married Emory Garnell Smiley, a non-commisioned officer in the U.S. Air Force.^[5] It would not be until a few years later that Tavis would learn the identity of his biological father, whom he identifies in his autobiography, What I Know For Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America only as "T."^[6]

His family soon moved to Indiana because his stepfather had been transferred to Grissom Air Force Base near Peru, Indiana. Upon arriving in Indiana, the Smiley family took up residence in a crowded mobile home in the small town of Bunker Hill, Indiana.^[7] Smiley's immediate family size was increased following the homicide of his aunt, whose death left five children with no stable home. Smiley's parents agreed to take in and raise their five orphaned nieces and nephews. Joyce and her husband also had eight children of their own over the years, resulting at one point in 13 children and Mr. and Mrs. Smiley all living in the trailer-home. Smiley's mother was a very religious person, and the family attended the local New Bethel Tabernacle Church, part of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World.^[8] The Smiley children were forbidden from listening to secular music at home and going to the movie theater and could watch television shows that their parents felt were family-friendly.^[9] When Tavis Smiley was in seventh grade, New Bethel pastor Elder Rufus Mills accused Tavis and his siblings of "running wild, disobeying their teacher, disrespecting their teacher, disrespecting the sanctity of this building, and mocking the holy message being taught" during Sunday School.^[10] According to Smiley's account of the incident, Smiley's Sunday School teacher became more confused as she was asking questions about the Book of John, and while other students "responded by giggling and acting a little unruly", he and his sister Phyllis "remained quiet".^[11] Garnell whipped Tavis and Phyllis with an extension cord, wounding the two children.^[12] The next day at school, administrators found out about the children's injuries.^[13] The local newspaper in Kokomo reported on the beating and the legal proceedings against Garnell, and Tavis and Phyllis were sent to foster care temporarily,^[14] Garnell told his children that the judge decided that he had "overreacted" and found he and Joyce as "concerned parents who were completely involved in our children's lives and well-being".^[15]

Smiley became interested in politics at age 13 after attending a fundraiser for U.S. Senator Birch Bayh.^[8] At Maconaquah High School in Bunker Hill, Indiana, a school that Smiley described as "98 percent white",^[16] Smiley was active in student council and the debate team, even though his parents were "skeptical of all non-church extracurricular activities".^[17]

College and political career[link]

In 1982, Smiley enrolled in Indiana University Bloomington (IU). Because Smiley's parents refused to complete financial aid papers, Smiley entered Indiana University with only $50 and a small suitcase.^[18] Administrators let Smiley complete the paperwork to become a full-time student.^[19] The summer after his freshman year, Smiley worked, attended summer classes, and lived off campus with Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball players, then being coached by Bob Knight.^[20] Smiley was accepted into the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity during his sophomore year and became business manager of his dormitory, a member of the student senate, and director of minority affairs.^[21] After his friend Denver Smith was killed by Indiana police officers who claimed to have acted in self-defense, Smiley helped lead protests to defend Smith, whom he believed had been wrongfully killed.^[22] Those protests led Smiley to a work-study internship at the office of Bloomington mayor Tomilea Allison. Being paid $5 an hour, Smiley wrote letters to local residents, researched for Mayor Allison, and helped write positions on local issues. Mayor Allison rebuked Smiley for padding his time sheets and had Smiley work off the extra hours without pay.^[23] During his first semester of junior year, Smiley was under academic probation and blamed his extracurricular activities for interfering with his studies.^[24] When Smiley visited Los Angeles to attend a national student leaders' convention, the cousin of his roommate introduced Smiley to football star Jim Brown. Brown introduced Smiley to fellow football player George Hughley, who worked for Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley and connected Smiley to Mayor Bradley's staff.^[25] Every week since meeting Bradley's staff, Smiley wrote a letter to the mayor's office asking for an internship and once personally flew to Los Angeles to appeal. However, by summertime he received a letter from the city stating that all internship positions were filled.^[26] Smiley then handwrote a letter to the mayor that he said represented his feeling "from the heart", and Bradley called Smiley to say that he had a position available for Smiley.^[27] As the internship was unpaid but counted for college credit, the Bloomington Community Progress Council funded Smiley with $5,000 for living expenses in Los Angeles, and Brown allowed Smiley to live as a houseguest during September 1985. Starting the next month, Smiley lived in the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity house in the University of Southern California. At City Hall, Smiley worked at the Office of Youth Development on the 22nd floor.^[28]

Twice, Smiley considered quitting college, first during junior year,^[29] and then after finishing his internship with Mayor Bradley. Bradley successfully convinced Smiley to return to college, and Smiley did.^[30] Smiley took the LSAT twice, as he was considering attending Harvard Law School.^[31] However, in his senior year, he failed a test in a computer class after being accused of copying another student's, so he failed that class and several others and lacked nine hours of credits and thus did not graduate from IU.^[32] Following a hiring freeze by the government of Los Angeles, Smiley served as an aide to Mayor Bradley until 1990.^[33] A 1988 article in the Los Angeles Times identified Smiley as "a Bradley administrative assistant who works in South Los Angeles".^[34] In 2003, Smiley officially received his degree from Indiana University in public affairs.^[35]

Radio and television career[link]

Campaigning for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council in 1991 against incumbent Ruth Galanter, Smiley finished fourth among 15 candidates. Smiley became a radio commentator, broadcasting one-minute daily radio segments called The Smiley Report on KGFJ radio.^[8] With Ruben Navarrette, Jr., Smiley co-hosted a local talk show in Los Angeles where his strongly held views on race and politics, combined with his arguments regarding the impact of institutional racism and substandard educational and economic opportunities for inner-city black youth, earned him attention on the Los Angeles Times. His commentaries focused on local and national current-affairs issues affecting the African-American community.^[36] For six months, Smiley worked on a community news program on a local cable network and spent six more months working on television in Montreal.^[37]