Coordinates	3°49′00″N103°20′00″N
{{infobox television | show name	Politically Incorrect | image | caption | format Comedy Discussion | runtime 30 minutes | creator | starring Bill Maher | country USA | network Comedy Central (1993–1997) ABC (1997–2002) | first_aired | last_aired | status Ended | num_episodes | website |}}

''Politically Incorrect'' is a late-night, half-hour political talk show hosted by Bill Maher that ran from 1993 to 2002. It premiered on Comedy Central from 1993 to 1997, and later on ABC in 1997, which cancelled it in 2002.

The show first originated from New York City, but soon moved to Los Angeles to make it easier to get "stars" as guests. The New York episodes were shot at the CBS Broadcast Center and the Los Angeles episodes at CBS Television City, where it remained even after its move to ABC. The first episode featured comedian Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern sidekick Robin Quivers, Republican Party strategist Ed Rollins, and comedian Larry Miller. The show won a 2000 Emmy Award for Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video for a Series, and was nominated for seventeen others, including one for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series every year from 1995 to 2002, and one in 1997 for Maher in the category of Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Program. The show also won two CableACE Awards in 1995 and 1996 for Talk Show Series, and was nominated for a third in 1997. It was also nominated for two Writers Guild of America awards for best Comedy/Variety series in 2001 and 2002.

The show's writers included Scott Carter, Al Franken, Arianna Huffington, Chris Kelly, Kevin Bleyer.

Frequent guests included Dave Matthews, Arianna Huffington, Michael McKean, Ann Coulter, Carrot Top, and Christine O'Donnell.

Format

The show began with a brief topical monologue from Maher. Then Maher introduces the guests individually, promoting their current projects. Four guests appear, usually a mix of individuals from show business, popular culture, pundits, political consultants, and occasionally regular people in the news, discussing topics in the news selected by Maher. Maher moved the conversation along and encouraged guests to be themselves. Maher described the program as "''The McLaughlin Group'' on acid."

On rare occasions, Maher would interview a single guest. The show was pioneering in mixing political figures and entertainers. Maher tried to air all points of view, especially controversial ones. Guests could be both aggravating and insightful, with the conversation similar to a cocktail party with quick-witted guests.

Controversy and cancellation

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and elsewhere, U.S. President George W. Bush said that the terrorists responsible were cowards (included in the September 11 attacks was the crash of American Airlines Flight 77, upon which frequent guest Barbara Olson was traveling to a ''Politically Incorrect'' taping; Maher left a panel chair empty for a week afterwards). On ''Politically Incorrect's'' September 17 show, Maher's guest Dinesh D'Souza disputed Bush's label, saying the terrorists were warriors. Maher agreed, and according to a transcript replied "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly".

While similar comments had been made in other media, Maher's comments became a major controversy. Some advertisers withdrew their support and some ABC affiliates stopped airing the show temporarily. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer denounced Maher, warning that "people have to watch what they say and watch what they do."

Maher almost immediately apologized, and explained that he had been criticizing U.S. military policy, not American soldiers. He pointed out that whether the attacks were cowardly was irrelevant to whether they were morally right or wrong.

The show was canceled the following June, which Maher and many others saw as a result of the controversy, although ABC denied that the controversy was a factor and said the program was canceled due to declining ratings. Maher said that the show struggled for advertisers in its final months.

Maher now hosts an hour-long program on HBO called ''Real Time with Bill Maher'', which follows a similar format.

Christine O'Donnell

After Republican Christine O'Donnell won the Delaware Senate primary in 2010, Maher reminded the media (on Larry King Live) that O'Donnell had been a frequent guest on ''Politically Incorrect'' and on that Friday's ''Real Time'', Maher showed an old clip of O'Donnell saying she dabbled in witchcraft, threatening to show more clips from the show until she comes on his show. O'Donnell has said she doesn't plan to appear on ''Real Time''.

See also

List of late night network TV programs

References

External links

Real Time with Bill Maher Official Site

Category:1993 American television series debuts Category:2002 American television series endings Category:1990s American television series Category:2000s American television series Category:American television talk shows Category:American Broadcasting Company network shows Category:Comedy Central shows Category:English-language television series

de:Politically Incorrect (Talkshow) fr:Politically Incorrect

Coordinates	3°49′00″N103°20′00″N
name	Eddie Izzard
birth name	Edward John Izzard
birth date	February 07, 1962
birth place	Colony of Aden, Aden Protectorate (now Aden, Yemen)
medium	Stand-up, Television, Film, Stage
nationality	British
active	1987–present
genre	Improvisational comedy,Observational comedy
subject	World history, Celebrities, Religion, Language, Sex
influences	Monty Python, Billy Connolly, Lenny Bruce, Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, Spike Milligan
influenced	Harry Hill, Dara Ó Briain, Demetri Martin, Hal Sparks
notable work	''Live at the Ambassadors'' ''Definite Article'' ''Dress to Kill'' ''Glorious'' ''Circle'' ''Lenny Bruce'' in ''Lenny'' ''Wayne Malloy/Doug Rich'' in ''The Riches'' ''Roman Nagel'' in ''Ocean's Thirteen'' ''Erich Fellgiebel'' in ''Valkyrie'' ''Mr. Kite'' in ''Across the Universe''
website	eddieizzard.com

}}

Edward John "Eddie" Izzard (born 7 February 1962) is an English stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime.

Izzard's works include stand-up sets ''Unrepeatable'', ''Definite Article'', ''Glorious'', ''Dress to Kill'', ''Circle'', ''Sexie'' and ''Stripped''. He had a starring role in the television series ''The Riches'' as Wayne Malloy and has appeared in many motion pictures such as ''Ocean's Twelve'', ''Ocean's Thirteen'', ''Mystery Men'', ''The Cat's Meow'', ''Across the Universe'', The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and ''Valkyrie''.

He has cited his main comedy role model as Monty Python, and John Cleese once referred to him as the "Lost Python". In 2009, he completed 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief in spite of having no prior history of long distance running.

He is also known for his transvestism.

Early life

Izzard was born in Aden, Yemen, then the Colony of Aden in the Aden Protectorate. He was the younger son of British parents Dorothy Ella, a midwife and nurse, and Harold John Izzard, an accountant who was working in Aden with British Petroleum. A year after his birth, the family moved to Bangor in Northern Ireland and lived there until he was five. The family then moved to Skewen in South Wales where his mother died of cancer when Izzard was six and his brother Mark was eight. Following his mother's death, Izzard attended boarding schools: St John's School in Porthcawl, St. Bede's Preparatory School, and Eastbourne College.

Career

Early career

Izzard began to toy with comedy at the University of Sheffield with partner and student friend Rob Ballard. After leaving his accountancy degree course, he and Ballard took their act to the streets, often in Covent Garden. After his split with Ballard, Izzard spent a great deal of the early 1980s working as a street performer in Europe and the United States. He then moved his act into the stand-up comedy venues of Britain. His first gig was at the Banana Cabaret in Balham, London. In 1987, he made his first stage appearance at The Comedy Store, London. In 1989, he met actress Sarah Townsend who was running a Fringe venue at the Edinburgh Festival. He refined his material throughout the 1980s, and in the early 1990s he finally began earning some measure of recognition through his improvisation, in part at his own club "Raging Bull" in Soho.

Success as a comedian

In 1991, Izzard got a spot on the Fry and Laurie produced AIDS benefit ''Hysteria 3,'' where he did his "Wolves" sketch, which broke him into the mainstream comedy circuit and television. His resultant stand-up work brought him British Comedy Awards in 1993 (for ''Live at the Ambassadors''), a part in "Filth" which was a stand up presentation by left-wing sympathetic comedians in aid of raising money for the Terence Higgins Trust in 1994, and 1996 (for ''Definite Article'').

In 1996, he got a part in his first United States-produced film, ''The Secret Agent,'' where he met and befriended Robin Williams. Williams already knew of Izzard's act, and discussed bringing his act to the United States. As a result, Izzard took ''Definite Article'' on a successful stint in New York City in the same year, and as a support act to Williams took ''Dress to Kill'' to San Francisco in 1998. His U.S. breakthrough came in 1999, when ''Dress to Kill'' was shown on the American television channel HBO, about a year or so after he performed the show on tour in the USA, UK and France. Suddenly, America was aware of Izzard, and the show went on to earn him two Emmy Awards in 2000 (for performance and writing).

In 1999, after complaints that his act recycled jokes appearing on his DVDs, the BBC's consumer programme ''Watchdog'' investigated Izzard's live act. Izzard explained that like most comedy performers, he used some of his most successful routines in each show. Nonetheless, Izzard was issued a warning by the Department of Trade and Industry. Since then, Izzard has rarely performed his stand-up act on television, saying that it uses up material at too high a rate, whereas stage material can be continually re-used in front of different audiences for several months.

In 2005, Izzard used his rambling style to provide the voice-over for the British government's television advertisements promoting recycling. The tagline of the ads was "Recycle. The possibilities are endless!" Izzard also performed on stage with Scottish musician Midge Ure at Live8 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He played the piano on the song "Vienna".

In January 2006, the U.S. television network FX announced the production of a new drama series called ''The Riches'' (formerly ''Low Life''). Izzard and British actress Minnie Driver star as a married couple, Wayne and Dahlia Malloy, who have been part of a caravan of con-artist Irish travellers swindling their way across the U.S. with their children. After finding another family killed in a car accident, the Malloys assume their identities and start a new life as law-abiding suburbanites in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The youngest son has shown a preference for wearing girls' clothing, leading to some speculation that the role was based upon Izzard's experiences. Izzard has stated in several interviews that the character of Sam had been given transvestite tendencies long before he was cast as Wayne Malloy, but he has contributed his perspective to keep the character believable.

Theatrical, TV and film appearances

In 1994, Izzard made his West End drama debut as the lead in the world premiere of David Mamet's ''The Cryptogram'' with Lindsay Duncan, in the production at London's Comedy Theatre. The success of that role led to his second starring role in David Beaird's black comedy ''900 Oneonta''. In 1995, he portrayed the title character in Christopher Marlowe's ''Edward II''.

In 1998 Izzard appeared briefly on stage with the Monty Python team in ''The American Film Institute's Tribute to Monty Python'' (also referred to as ''Monty Python Live at Aspen''). He walked on stage with the five surviving Pythons and he was summarily escorted off by Eric Idle and Michael Palin as he attempted to participate in a discussion about how the group got together.

Izzard portrayed comedian Lenny Bruce in the 1999 production of Julian Barry's 1971 play ''Lenny''. In 2001, he replaced Clive Owen in Peter Nichols' 1967 play ''A Day in the Death of Joe Egg'' at the Comedy Theatre. Izzard and Victoria Hamilton then repeated their lead roles when the show was brought to Broadway in 2003, with The Roundabout Theatre Company production. The revival received four Tony Award nominations including Best Revival of a Play, Best Leading Actor and Actress for its stars Izzard and Hamilton in their Broadway debuts, and Best Direction for Laurence Boswell. In June 2010, Izzard replaced James Spader in the role of Jack Lawson in David Mamet's play ''Race'' on Broadway.

Izzard has appeared in numerous films, starting with 1996's ''The Secret Agent''. He has appeared as several real-life individuals, including Charlie Chaplin in ''The Cat's Meow'', actor Gustav von Wangenheim in ''Shadow of the Vampire'' and General Erich Fellgiebel in ''Valkyrie''. Other roles have included Mr. Kite in ''Across the Universe'', Lussurioso in ''Revengers Tragedy'' and criminal expert Roman Nagel in ''Ocean's Twelve'' and ''Ocean's Thirteen''. Voice work has included the titular It in ''Five Children and It'', Nigel in ''The Wild'' and the mouse warrior Reepicheep in ''The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.'' He said in 2009 that he would not be reprising his role as Reepicheep and the role was ultimately played by Simon Pegg in ''The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader''.

Izzard appeared in the BBC science fiction miniseries ''The Day of the Triffids'' based on the 1951 novel, alongside Jason Priestley, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, Dougray Scott and Brian Cox. He played Dr. Hatteras, a skeptical psychology professor, in the Showtime series ''United States of Tara''.

Comic style

Izzard's style is heavily influenced by Monty Python, especially in his use of a stream-of-consciousness delivery that jumps between topics as he free associates on stage. He does not generally work from a script, owing to his dyslexia. Instead, he interrupts himself with new joke ideas, the characters he portrays turn into other characters, and he nonchalantly leaps from topic to topic. This often results in brief pauses in the routine which he fills with 'so, yeah', and other verbal tics that have become his trademarks. Thinking aloud is also part of Izzard's ongoing attempt to make the process of writing the show itself part of the humour. As he put it in a 2004 interview with ''The Guardian'', "It's the oral tradition. Human beings have been doing it for thousands of years". He frequently notes the reaction to a joke midstream by pretending to write on his hand ("Should be funnier"; "Lost them there"; "They didn't believe me"; "They didn't follow, never do that again", "never link those two[references] together ever again.") He asks the audience questions and verbally engages with hecklers.

Among Izzard's comic talents are mimicry and mime. He portrays God as an authority figure using the voice of James Mason and casts Sean Connery as Noah; these impersonations appear in many of his performances. Izzard also imitates activities such as sawing wood, vacuum cleaning, and mowing the lawn, anthropomorphising the machines with accents and personalities. Successful impressions, such as his Scottish clarinet teacher, Mrs. Badcrumble, become running gags which recur in different shows. He tackles topics both contemporary and historic, including frequent re-imaginings of historical events which result in scenes like 'Cake or Death: Church of England runs the Inquisition', or 'Jesus Ministers to the Dinosaurs'.

When asked about his comedy style by George Stroumboulopoulos, host of CBC Television's talk show, ''The Hour'', Izzard described his use of history by saying,

"I just talk complete bullshit. The history, the politics, I noticed that no one was using history, so there's a lot of history lying about the place, and it's all free, and it's on Wikipedia! You know, I use Wikipedia like a crazy idiot, now. Then I take all this stuff, and I regurgitate it into a weird angle".

In 2008, in his ''Stripped'' tour, Izzard began using Wikipedia itself as part of his stand-up act, reading from a live copy of an article and mocking Wikipedia's self-referential editorial style.

Traditionally, Izzard has focused on the creative possibilities of thinking through absurd situations in real time. He also turns much of the attention on himself and his personality, including his cross-dressing ("It is my manifest destiny to wear a dress on all seven continents"). Contemporary pop culture (Harry Potter, ''Star Wars'', etc.) is also a frequent subject, brought up both to critique its weaknesses and to enhance his anecdotes.

His bent towards the surreal even went so far as to produce a sitcom called Cows in 1997 for Channel 4, a live action comedy with actors dressed in cowsuits.

Transvestism

Izzard started to freely talk about his transvestism in venues like Edinburgh Festival as early as 1992. In his show, ''Dress to Kill'', Izzard describes himself as an "executive", "action" and "professional" transvestite, as "a male tomboy" rather than a drag queen or a "weirdo" transvestite (he cites J. Edgar Hoover and Hermann Göring as examples of the latter). He regularly cross-dresses both on and off stage and makes it clear that cross-dressing is, for him, neither a part of his performance nor a sexual fetish. He remarks in his show ''Unrepeatable'', "Women wear what they want and so do I". According to Izzard, "Most transvestites fancy women". He dismisses claims that he is a male homosexual, saying he is "a straight transvestite or a male lesbian". He has also described himself as "a lesbian trapped in a man's body", transgender, and "a complete boy plus half a girl".

Activism

Izzard has engaged in campaigning work. He is especially well-known as a pro-European Union campaigner supporting the further integration of the UK into the EU. In May 2005 he appeared on the BBC's political debate show ''Question Time'', describing himself as a 'British-European', comparing this with other cultural identities such as 'African-American'. As part of his integration campaigning, he was one of the first people to spend a euro in London. This pan-European approach has influenced his work: he regularly performs in French, in which he is fluent, and occasionally in German, in addition to English. In July 2003, Izzard received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England for "pro-Europe campaigning", "his contribution to promoting modern languages and tolerance of other cultures and lifestyles" and for having "transcended national barriers" with his humour.

He has also campaigned unsuccessfully against the closure of the departments of Drama and Languages, Linguistics and Translation at the University of East Anglia, although the department of Drama was later reprieved. In 1998, Izzard was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party. He appeared in a party political broadcast for the Labour Party in the run up to the 2005 general election. He donated nearly £10,000 to the party in 2008, appeared again in a party political broadcast for the 2009 European election and again in a 2010 election video entitled 'Brilliant Britain'. Izzard appeared in literature to support changing the British electoral system from first-past-the-post to alternative vote for electing Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the Alternative Vote referendum in 2011.

On 20 July 2006, he received an honorary doctorate in Letters from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Sheffield, where he spent one year on an Accounting and Financial Management course in the early 80s. During his time at the University he established the now-defunct Alternative Productions Society in the Union of Students with the aim of promoting fringe-based arts. On 4 March 2010 he was elected as the Honorary President of the University of Sheffield Union of Students.

On 7 July 2007, Izzard was one of the presenters from the London leg of Live Earth. During an interview for the 2008 Stripped tour, Izzard spoke about becoming more active in European politics as well as running for political office in Europe within the next decade. Izzard added a stop in New Orleans during his 2008 ''Stripped'' tour. All proceeds from the performance of 23 June 2008 were donated to Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans.

Marathons

On 27 July 2009, with only 5 weeks' training and no significant prior history of running, Izzard began seven weeks of back-to-back marathon runs (with Sundays off) across the UK to raise money for Sport Relief. He ran from London to Cardiff, to Belfast, to Edinburgh, and back to London carrying flags of England, Scotland or Wales depending on which country he was in, and carried a self-designed green flag bearing a white dove when in Northern Ireland. The blog Eddie Iz Running was a document of his road running marathon, in which he ran 43 marathons in 51 days. He completed the run on 15 September 2009, after having run at least 27 miles each day, 6 days a week for 7 weeks straight, covering more than 1,100 miles across the UK.Izzard received a special award at BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2009 for his achievements.

Izzard ran his final marathon in five hours and 30 seconds, narrowly outside his projected time. However, had he not stopped and waited 20 minutes for his film crew to catch up with him he could have finished well under his target time. In March 2010, Izzard took part in the Sport Relief Mile event.

Following the completion of the marathon runs, Izzard has started training to take part in an Ironman Triathlon, saying he has become fascinated with fitness "because there's no point in throwing away all that training".

Personal life

During his ''Stripped'' tour, Izzard said he realised he was an atheist. "I was warming the material up in New York, where one night, literally on stage, I realised I didn’t believe in God at all. I just didn’t think there was anyone upstairs."

He keeps his romantic life private, saying one of the reasons is due to the wishes of his companions not wanting to become content for his show. Izzard dated Sarah Townsend, the director of the documentary ''Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story'', whom he first met while she was running a Fringe venue at the Edinburgh Festival in 1989.

Izzard speaks French and has performed stand up in French during his shows. He also speaks German and used it in the 2001 film ''All the Queen's Men''.

Critical reception

On 18 March 2007, Izzard was listed as number 3 of the 100 Greatest British National Comedians (just behind Peter Kay at number 2 and Billy Connolly at number 1) as part of British television station Channel 4's ongoing ''100 Greatest...'', series. However in the 2010 updated version of the list he was ranked 5th In a 2005 poll to find ''The Comedian's Comedian'', Izzard was voted amongst the top 20 greatest comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. He was number 75 in Comedy Central's ''100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time''.

During the 1999 television special ''It's... the Monty Python Story'', which Izzard hosted, John Cleese said Izzard was the "Lost Python"; Izzard furthered that idea via his substitution for Graham Chapman in public performance of Python material with the rest of the original members of the troupe. He also made a cameo appearance in the Python reunion interview ''Monty Python Live At Aspen''.

In 2008, Izzard received the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society of UCD, Dublin, Ireland. In March 2010, the Students Union of the University of Sheffield overwhelmingly elected him their honorary President.

Discography and appearances

Stand-up

''Live at the Ambassadors'' (15 November 1993)

''Unrepeatable'' (14 March 1994)

''Definite Article'' (21 October 1996)

''Glorious'' (17 November 1997)

''Dress to Kill'' (9 November 1998)

''Circle'' (18 November 2002)

''Sexie'' (26 November 2003)

''Stripped'' (23 November 2009)

Stage

''900 Oneonta'' (1994)

''The Cryptogram'' (1994)

''Edward II'' (1995)

''Lenny'' (1999)

''A Day in the Death of Joe Egg'' (2001–2002, 2003)

''Trumbo'' (2003)

''Race'' (2010)

Filmography

''The Oncoming Storm'' (1995) as Luthor Keeton

''The Secret Agent'' (1996) as Vladimir

''Velvet Goldmine'' (1998) as Jerry Devine

''The Avengers'' (1998) as Bailey

''Mystery Men'' (1999) as Tony P

''The Criminal'' (1999) as Peter Hume

''Circus'' (2000) as Troy

''Shadow of the Vampire'' (2000) as Gustav von Wangenheim

''The Cat's Meow'' (2001) as Charlie Chaplin

''All the Queen's Men'' (2001) as Tony Parker

''Revengers Tragedy'' (2002) as Lussurioso

''Alien Invasion'' (2003) as Brik

''Blueberry'' aka ''Renegade'' (2004) as Prosit

''Five Children and It'' (2004) as It (voice)

''Romance & Cigarettes'' (2004) as Gene Vincent

''Ocean's Twelve'' (2004) as Roman Nagel

''The Aristocrats'' (2005) as Himself

''The Wild'' (2006) as Nigel (voice)

''My Super Ex-Girlfriend'' (2006) as Professor Bedlam

''Ocean's Thirteen'' (2007) as Roman Nagel

''Across the Universe'' (2007) as Mr. Kite

''The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'' (2008) as Reepicheep (voice)

''Igor'' (2008) as Dr. Schadenfreude (voice)

''Valkyrie'' (2008) as Erich Fellgiebel

''Rage'' (2009) as Tiny Diamonds

''Every Day'' (2009) as Garrett

''The Other Side'' (2009) as Dean Bellamy

''Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story'' (2009) as Himself

''Cars 2'' (2011) as Miles Axelrod

''Snow White and the Huntsman'' (2012) as Tiberius

TV appearances

''Barf Bites Back (Amnesty International Gala)'' (1991) – ITV

''Open Fire'' (1994)

''Have I Got News for You'' (1994, 1995 and 1996) – BBC Two

''Aristophanes: The Gods are Laughing'' (1995)

''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' (1995)

''Tales from the Crypt'' (1996) – HBO

''Clive Anderson Talks Back'' (1996)

''Inspector Derrick'' (1997)

''Channel Izzard'' (1997)

''The Roseanne Show'' (1998)

''Rex the Runt'' (1998) – BBC

''Shooting Stars'' (1998) – BBC

''Parkinson'' (3 times)

''Dennis Miller Live'' (1999) – HBO

''Python Night – 30 Years of Monty Python'' (1999) – BBC

''Good News Week'' (2000) – Network 10

''Mongrel Nation'' (2002) – Discovery Channel

''The Caroline Rhea Show'' (2002)

''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' (2002, 2004 and 2007)

''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien'' (2009)

''40'' (2003) – Channel 4

''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (2003, 2008) NBC

''QI'' (Unaired pilot- 2002 or 2003, and 2010)

''Top Gear'' (2004) – BBC Two

''Last Call with Carson Daly'' (2005)

''The Sharon Osbourne Show'' (2006)

''Late Show with David Letterman'' (6 times)

''Late Late show with Craig Kilborn'' (4 times)

''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' (2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)

''The Henry Rollins Show'' (2006)

''The Paul O'Grady Show'' (2009)

''The Secret Policeman's Ball'' (2006)

''Kitchen'' (2007) – five

''Comedy Cuts'' (interview) (2007)

''The Hour'' (2007)

''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' (2007 and 2009)

''The Daily Show'' (2000, 2003 and 2007)

''The Riches'' (2007–2008)

''The Secret Policeman's Ball'' (2008)

''The Graham Norton Show'' (2008)

''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' (2009)

''Kevin Pollak's Chat Show'' (2009)

''BBC Sports Personality of the Year'' (2009 award winner)

''The Day of the Triffids'' (2009)

''Marathon Man'' (2010)

''The Simpsons'' episode ''To Surveil with Love'' (2010)

''Chelsea Lately'' (2010)

''United States of Tara'' (2011)

''Alan Carr: Chatty Man'' (2011)

Video game

''102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue'' – Sgt. Tibbs the Cat (voice)

Future projects

Eddie Izzard said in a personal appearance (for his biopic ''Believe'') that he is currently putting together a script for a movie as a conclusion to ''The Riches''. He said the plan is to "pick up exactly where we left off, and we think we're going to make a film of the next bit". As of 24 May 2010 there are no indications that this film will ever be made, leaving ''The Riches'' without a conclusion.

He has announced for future tours that a dollar out of each ticket sale will be appropriated to supplying Africa with contraceptives and other means of sexual protection.

See also

Cross-dressing in film and television

References

External links

Official web site

BBC America – Eddie Izzard

Interview with Izzard – ''The Observer'', 3 October 2004

''It's stupid and I love it – the Goon Show and me'' – ''The Guardian'', 14 February 2005.

Izzard interviewed by Bono – ''The Independent'', 16 May 2006

Venus Zine Staff Picks: Eddie Izzard, Dress to Kill

Eddie Izzard Category:1962 births Category:People from Aden Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:English atheists Category:English buskers Category:English comedians Category:English film actors Category:English voice actors Category:English television actors Category:English stand-up comedians Category:Cross-dressers Category:Living people Category:Old Eastbournians Category:Emmy Award winners Category:People educated at Oakleigh House School

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Coordinates	3°49′00″N103°20′00″N
name	Robert Anton Wilson
birth name	Robert Edward Wilson
birth date	January 18, 1932
birth place	Brooklyn, New York
death date	January 11, 2007
death place	Capitola, California
spouse	Arlen Riley Wilson }}

Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson, January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007), known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized as an episkopos, pope, and saint of Discordianism, Wilson helped publicize the group through his writings, interviews, and strolls.

Wilson described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth". His goal being "to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything".

Early life

Wilson, born Robert Edward Wilson in Methodist Hospital, in Brooklyn, New York, spent his first years in Flatbush, and moved with his family to Gerritsen Beach around the age of 4 or 5, where they stayed until he turned 13. He suffered from polio as a child, and found generally effective treatment with the Kenny Method (created by Elizabeth Kenny) which the American Medical Association repudiated at that time. Polio's effects remained with Wilson throughout his life, usually manifesting as minor muscle spasms causing him to use a cane occasionally until 2000, when he experienced a major bout with post-polio syndrome that would continue until his death.

Wilson attended Catholic grammar school, most likely the school associated with Gerritsen Beach's Resurrection Church . He attended Brooklyn Technical High School to remove himself from the Catholic influence. While working as an ambulance driver Wilson attended New York University, studying engineering and mathematics.

He worked as an engineering aide, a salesman, a copywriter, and as associate editor of ''Playboy'' magazine from 1965 to 1971. Wilson adopted his maternal grandfather's name, Anton, for his writings, at first telling himself that he would save the "Edward" for when he wrote the Great American Novel and later finding that "Robert Anton Wilson" had become an established identity.

In 1979 he received a Ph.D. in psychology from Paideia University in California, an unaccredited institution that has since closed. Wilson reworked his dissertation, and it found publication in 1983 as ''Prometheus Rising''.

Wilson married freelance writer and poet Arlen Riley in 1958; they had four children. Their youngest daughter Luna—beaten to death in an apparent robbery in the store where she worked in 1976 at the age of 15—became the first person to have her brain preserved by the Bay Area Cryonics Society. Arlen Riley Wilson died in 1999 following a series of strokes.

The ''Illuminatus!'' Trilogy

Among Wilson's 35 books, and many other works, perhaps his best-known volumes remain the cult classic series ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' (1975), co-authored with Robert Shea. Advertised as "a fairy tale for paranoids," the three books--''The Eye in the Pyramid'', ''The Golden Apple'', and ''Leviathan'', soon offered as a single volume—philosophically and humorously examined, among many other themes, occult and magical symbolism and history, the counterculture of the 1960s, secret societies, data concerning author H.P. Lovecraft and author and occultist Aleister Crowley, and American paranoia about conspiracies and conspiracy theories.

Wilson and Shea derived much of the odder material from letters sent to ''Playboy'' magazine while they worked as the editors of the Playboy Forum. The books mixed true information with imaginative fiction to engage the reader in what Wilson called "guerrilla ontology" which he apparently referred to as "Operation Mindfuck" in ''Illuminatus!'' The trilogy also outlined a set of libertarian and anarchist axioms known as Celine's Laws (named after Hagbard Celine, a character in ''Illuminatus!''), concepts Wilson revisited several times in other writings.

Among the many subplots of ''Illuminatus!'' one addresses biological warfare and the overriding of the United States Bill of Rights, another gives a detailed account of the John F. Kennedy assassination, in which no fewer than five snipers, all working for different causes, prepared to shoot Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, and the book's climax occurs at a rock concert where the audience collectively face the danger of becoming a mass human sacrifice.

''Illuminatus!'' popularized Discordianism and the use of the term "fnord". It incorporates experimental prose styles influenced by writers such as William S. Burroughs, James Joyce, and Ezra Pound. Although Shea and Wilson never partnered on such a scale again, Wilson continued to expand upon the themes of the ''Illuminatus!'' books throughout his writing career. Most of his later fiction contains cross-over characters from "The Sex Magicians" (Wilson's first novel, written before the release of ''Illuminatus!'', which includes many of his same characters) and ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''.

''Illuminatus!'' won the Prometheus Hall of Fame award for science fiction in 1986, has many international editions, and found adaptation for the stage when Ken Campbell produced it as a ten-hour epic drama. It also appeared as a Steve Jackson role-playing card game called Illuminati and a trading-card game called Illuminati: New World Order. Eye N Apple Productions and Rip Off Press produced a comic book version of the trilogy.

On the Illuminati

Near the end of his life, Richard Metzger interviewed Robert Anton Wilson and asked him about the Illuminati. His answer was:

''Schrödinger's Cat'' Trilogy, ''The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles'', and ''Masks of the Illuminati''

Wilson wrote two more popular fiction series. The first, a trilogy later published as a single volume, was ''Schrödinger's Cat''. The second, ''The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles'', appeared as three books. In between publishing the two trilogies Wilson released a stand-alone novel, ''Masks of the Illuminati'' (1981), which fits into, due to the main character's ancestry, ''The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles''' timeline and, while published earlier, could qualify for the fourth volume in that series.

''Schrödinger's Cat'' consists of three volumes: ''The Universe Next Door'', ''The Trick Top Hat'', and ''The Homing Pigeons''. Wilson set the three books in differing alternative universes, and most of the characters remain almost the same but may have slightly different names and different careers and background stories. The books cover the fields of quantum mechanics and the varied philosophies and explanations that exist within the science. The single volume describes itself as a magical textbook and a type of initiation, and implies that some people have gone slightly insane just by reading it. The single-volume edition omits many entire pages and has many other omissions when compared with the original separate books.

''The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles'', composed of ''The Earth Will Shake'' (1982), ''The Widow's Son'' (1985), and ''Nature's God'' (1991), follows the timelines of several characters through different generations, time periods, and countries. The books cover, among many other topics, the history, legacy, and rituals of the Illuminati and related groups.

Plays and screenplays

A play by Wilson, ''Wilhelm Reich in Hell'' (published as a book in 1987 and first performed at the Edmund Burke Theatre in Dublin, in San Francisco, and in Los Angeles) included many factual and fictional characters, including Marilyn Monroe, Uncle Sam, and Wilhelm Reich himself. Wilson also wrote and published as books two screenplays, not yet produced: ''Reality Is What You Can Get Away With: an Illustrated Screenplay'' (1992) and ''The Walls Came Tumbling Down'' (1997).

The ''Cosmic Trigger'' series and other books

In the nonfiction and partly autobiographical ''Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati'' (1977) and its two sequels, as well as in many other works, Wilson examined Freemasons, Discordianism, Sufism, the Illuminati, Futurology, Zen Buddhism, Dennis and Terence McKenna, Jack Parsons, the occult practices of Aleister Crowley and G.I. Gurdjieff, Yoga, and many other esoteric or counterculture philosophies, personalities, and occurrences. Wilson advocated Timothy Leary's eight circuit model of consciousness and neurosomatic/linguistic engineering, which he wrote about in many books including ''Prometheus Rising'' (1983, revised 1997) and again in 1990 with ''Quantum Psychology'' (which contain practical techniques intended to help one break free of one's "reality tunnels"). With Leary, he helped promote the futurist ideas of space migration, intelligence increase, and life extension, which they combined to form the word symbol SMI²LE.

Wilson's 1986 book, ''The New Inquisition'', argues that whatever reality consists of it actually would seem much weirder than we commonly imagine. It cites, among other sources, Bell's theorem and Alain Aspect's experimental proof of Bell's to suggest that mainstream science has a strong materialist bias, and that in fact modern physics may have already disproved materialist metaphysics.

Wilson also supported the work and utopian theories of Buckminster Fuller and examined the theories of Charles Fort. He and Loren Coleman became friends, as he did with media theorist Marshall McLuhan and Neuro Linguistic Programming co-founder Richard Bandler, with whom he taught workshops. He also admired James Joyce, and wrote extensive commentaries on the author and on two of Joyce's novels, ''Finnegans Wake'' and ''Ulysses'', in his 1988 book ''Coincidance''.

Although Wilson often lampooned and criticized some New Age beliefs, bookstores specializing in New Age material often sell his books. Wilson, a well-known author in occult and Neo-Pagan circles, used Aleister Crowley as a main character in his 1981 novel ''Masks of the Illuminati'', included some elements of H. P. Lovecraft's work in his novels, and at times claimed to have perceived encounters with magical "entities" (when asked whether these entities seemed "real", he answered they seemed "real enough," although "not as real as the IRS" but "easier to get rid of", and later decided that his experiences may have emerged from "just my right brain hemisphere talking to my left"). He warned against beginners using occult practice, since to rush into such practices and the resulting "energies" they unleash could lead people to "go totally nuts".

Wilson also criticized scientific types with overly rigid belief systems, equating them with religious fundamentalists in their fanaticism. In a 1988 interview, when asked about his newly-published book ''The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science'', Wilson commented: "I coined the term irrational rationalism because those people claim to be rationalists, but they're governed by such a heavy body of taboos. They're so fearful, and so hostile, and so narrow, and frightened, and uptight and dogmatic... I wrote this book because I got tired satirizing fundamentalist Christianity... I decided to satirize fundamentalist materialism for a change, because the two are equally comical... The materialist fundamentalists are funnier than the Christian fundamentalists, because they think they're rational! ...They're never skeptical about anything except the things they have a prejudice against. None of them ever says anything skeptical about the AMA, or about anything in establishment science or any entrenched dogma. They're only skeptical about new ideas that frighten them. They're actually dogmatically committed to what they were taught when they were in college..."

Probability reliance

In a 2003 interview with ''High Times'' magazine, Wilson described himself as a "Model Agnostic" which he said "consists of never regarding any model or map of the universe with total 100% belief or total 100% denial. Following Korzybski, I put things in probabilities, not absolutes... My only originality lies in applying this zetetic attitude outside the hardest of the hard sciences, physics, to softer sciences and then to non-sciences like politics, ideology, jury verdicts and, of course, conspiracy theory".

Wilson claimed in ''Cosmic Trigger: Volume 1'' "not to believe anything", since "belief is the death of intelligence". He described this approach as "Maybe Logic."

Wilson wrote about this and other topics in articles for the cyberpunk magazine ''Mondo 2000''.

Economic thought

Robert Anton Wilson favored a form of Basic Income Guarantee; synthesizing several ideas under the acronym RICH. His ideas are set forth in the essay "The RICH Economy" found in ''The Illuminati Papers''.

Other activities

Robert Anton Wilson and his wife Arlen Riley Wilson founded the ''Institute for the Study of the Human Future'' in 1975.

From 1982 until his death, Wilson had a business relationship with the Association for Consciousness Exploration, which hosted his first on-stage dialogue with his long-time friend Timothy Leary. entitled ''The Inner Frontier''. Wilson dedicated his book ''The New Inquisition'' to A.C.E.'s co-directors, Jeff Rosenbaum and Joseph Rothenberg.

Wilson also joined the Church of the SubGenius, who referred to him as Pope Bob. He contributed to their literature, including the book ''Three-Fisted Tales of "Bob"'', and shared a stage with their founder, Rev. Ivan Stang, on several occasions. Wilson also founded the Guns and Dope Party and its corresponding Burning Man theme camp.

As a member of the Board of Advisors of the Fully Informed Jury Association, Wilson worked to inform the public about jury nullification, the right of jurors to nullify a law they deem unjust. He supported and wrote about E-Prime, a form of English lacking all "be" verbs (words such as "is", "are", "was", "were" etc.), and preferred the term "maybe logic".

A decades-long researcher into drugs and a strong opponent of what he called "the war on some drugs", Wilson participated as a Special Guest in the week-long 1999 Annual Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, and used and often promoted the use of medical marijuana.

Wilson co-founded and became the primary instructor of the Maybe Logic Academy, named for his agnostic approach to all knowledge. Fellow instructors include Patricia Monaghan, Rev. Ivan Stang, Philip H. Farber, Antero Alli, Peter J. Carroll, Starhawk, R. U. Sirius, Douglas Rushkoff, Erik Davis, Lon Milo Duquette, and David Jay Brown.

Death

On June 22, 2006, ''Huffington Post'' blogger Paul Krassner reported that Robert Anton Wilson was under hospice care at home with friends and family. On October 2, 2006 Douglas Rushkoff reported that Wilson was in severe financial trouble. Slashdot, Boing Boing, and the Church of the SubGenius also picked up on the story, linking to Rushkoff's appeal. As his webpage reported on October 10, these efforts succeeded beyond expectation and raised a sum which would have supported him for at least six months. Obviously touched by the great outpouring of support, on October 5, 2006, Wilson left the following comment on his personal website, expressing his gratitude:

On January 6, Wilson wrote on his blog that according to several medical authorities, he would likely only have between two days and two months left to live. He closed this message with "I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying. Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd." He died peacefully five days later, on January 11 at 4:50 a.m. Pacific time. After his cremation on January 18, and his family-held memorial service on February 18, 2007, his family scattered most of his ashes at the same spot as his wife's - off the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, California.

A tribute show to Wilson, organized by Coldcut and Mixmaster Morris and performed in London as a part of the "Ether 07 Festival" held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on March 18, 2007, also included Ken Campbell, Bill Drummond and Alan Moore.

Works

Bibliography

Fiction

''The Sex Magicians'' (1973)

''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' (1975) (with Robert Shea)

* ''The Eye in the Pyramid''

* ''The Golden Apple''

* ''Leviathan''

''Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy'' (1979–1981)

* ''The Universe Next Door''

* ''The Trick Top Hat''

* ''The Homing Pigeons''

''Masks of the Illuminati'' (1981)

''The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles''

* ''The Earth Will Shake'' (1982)

* ''The Widow's Son'' (1985)

* ''Nature's God'' (1988)

Autobiographical and philosophical trilogy

''Cosmic Trigger Trilogy''

* ''Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati'' (1977)

* ''Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth'' (1992)

* ''Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death'' (1995)

Plays and screenplays

''Wilhelm Reich in Hell'' (1987)

''Reality Is What You Can Get Away With'' (1992; revised edition—new introduction added—1996)

''The Walls Came Tumbling Down'' (1997)

Non-fiction

''Playboy's Book of Forbidden Words'' (1972)

''Sex and Drugs: A Journey Beyond Limits'' (1973)

''The Book of the Breast'' (1974)

''Neuropolitics'' (1978) (with Timothy Leary and George Koopman)

''''The Game of Life'' (1979) (with Timothy Leary)

''The Illuminati Papers'' (1980) collection of essays and new material

''Prometheus Rising'' (1983)

''Right Where You Are Sitting Now'' (1983) collection of essays and new material

''The New Inquisition'' (1986)

''Natural Law, or Don't Put a Rubber on Your Willy'' (1987)

''Coincidance: A Head Test (1988) essays and new material

''Neuropolitique'' (1988) (with Timothy Leary & George Koopman) revision of ''Neuropolitics''

''Sex, Drugs and Magick: A Journey Beyond Limits'' (1988) revision, with new introduction, of ''Sex and Drugs: A Journey Beyond Limits''

''Ishtar Rising'' (1989) revision of ''The Book of the Breast''

''Quantum Psychology'' (1990)

''Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults and Cover-ups'' (1998) (with Miriam Joan Hill)

''TSOG: The Thing That Ate the Constitution'' (2002)

''Email to the universe and other alterations of consciousness'' (2005) collection of essays and new material

''Tale of the Tribe'' (2006)

Editor

''Semiotext(e) SF'' (1989) (anthology, editor, with Rudy Rucker and Peter Lamborn Wilson)

''Chaos and Beyond'' (1994) (editor and primary author)

Discography

''A Meeting with Robert Anton Wilson'' (ACE) cassette

''Religion for the Hell of It'' (ACE) cassette

''H.O.M.E.s on LaGrange'' (ACE) cassette

''The New Inquisition'' (ACE) cassette

''The H.E.A.D. Revolution'' (ACE) cassette and CD

''Prometheus Rising'' (ACE) cassette

''The Inner Frontier (with Timothy Leary)'' (ACE) cassette

''The Magickal Movement: Present & Future'' (with Margot Adler, Isaac Bonewits & Selena Fox) (ACE) Panel Discussion - cassette

''Magick Changing the World, the World Changing Magick'' (ACE) Panel Discussion - cassette

''The Self in Transformation'' (ACE) Panel Discussion - cassette

''The Once & Future Legend'' (with Ivan Stang, Robert Shea and others) (ACE) Panel Discussion - cassette

''What IS the Conspiracy, Anyway?'' (ACE) Panel Discussion - cassette

''The Chocolate-Biscuit Conspiracy'' album with The Golden Horde (1984)

''Twelve Eggs in a Basket'' CD

''Robert Anton Wilson On Finnegans Wake and Joseph Campbell'' (interview by Faustin Bray and Brian Wallace) (1988) 2 CD Set Sound Photosynthesis

''Acceleration of Knowledge'' (1991) cassette

''Secrets of Power'' comedy cassette

''Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything: or Old Bob Exposes His Ignorance'' (July 30, 2005) Sounds True ISBN 1-59179-375-0, ISBN 978-1-59179-375-5

Filmography

Actor

''Túneis da Realidade, Os'' (a.k.a. ''Who Is the Master Who Makes the Grass Green?'') (1996) Edgar Pêra (Portugal)

''Manual de Evasão'' (September 16, 1994) Edgar Pêra (Portugal)

Writer

''Wilhelm Reich in Hell'' (2005) (Video) Deepleaf Productions

Himself

''Children of the Revolution: Tune Back In'' (2005) Revolutionary Child Productions

''The Gospel According to Philip K. Dick'' (2001) TKO Productions

''23'' (1998) (''23 - Nichts ist so wie es scheint'') Claussen & Wöbke Filmproduktion GmbH (Germany)

''Arise! The SubGenius Video'' (1992) (V) (a.k.a. ''Arise! SubGenius Recruitment Film'' #16) The SubGenius Foundation (USA)

''Borders'' (1989) Co-Directions Inc. (TV documentary)

''Fear In The Night: Demons, Incest and UFOs'' (1993) Video - Trajectories

''Twelve Eggs in a Box: Myth, Ritual and the Jury System'' (1994) Video - Trajectories

''Everything Is Under Control: Robert Anton Wilson in Interview'' (1998) Video - Trajectories

Documentary

''Maybe Logic: The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson'', a documentary featuring selections from over 25 years of Wilson footage, released on DVD in North America on May 30, 2006.

Inspired works

The Australian Psytrance artist Hedonix released an album entitled "Order out of Chaos" in 2009 which is dedicated to Robert Anton Wilson.

See also

23 Enigma

8-Circuit Model of Consciousness

Chaos magic

General semantics

List of American philosophers

List of Discordian works

List of occult writers

Max Stirner

Non-Aristotelian logic

Smart drugs (Nootropics)

''Trajectories''

References

External links

R.A.W. Official Website, now maintained by his family

RAW Data 2.0, Wilson's blog, now maintained by his daughter, Christina

RAW Data, Wilson's first blog

Guns and Dope Party, Political party created by Wilson and Olga Struthio

''Maybe Logic - The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson''

Right Where You Are Sitting Now Podcast Extensive two-hour Robert Anton Wilson tribute podcast, featuring audio clips, and interviews with friends of Wilson.

A collection of RAW audio/video from his publisher A collection of RAW audio/video from his publisher

Category:1932 births Category:2007 deaths Category:American agnostics Category:American anarchists Category:American essayists Category:American expatriates in Ireland Category:American libertarians Category:American memoirists Category:American novelists Category:American occult writers Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American philosophers Category:American science fiction writers Category:American SubGenii Category:Chaos magicians Category:Consciousness researchers and theorists Category:Discordians Category:Futurologists Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Philosophers of mind Category:Postmodernists Category:Prometheus Award winning authors Category:Psychedelic drug advocates Category:Religious naturalists Category:Western mystics

bg:Робърт Антън Уилсън cs:Robert Anton Wilson da:Robert Anton Wilson de:Robert Anton Wilson es:Robert Anton Wilson eo:Robert Anton Wilson fr:Robert Anton Wilson he:רוברט אנטון וילסון nl:Robert Anton Wilson ja:ロバート・アントン・ウィルソン no:Robert Anton Wilson pl:Robert Anton Wilson pt:Robert Anton Wilson ro:Robert Anton Wilson ru:Уилсон, Роберт Антон simple:Robert Anton Wilson sr:Robert Anton Vilson fi:Robert Anton Wilson sv:Robert Anton Wilson tr:Robert Anton Wilson

Coordinates	3°49′00″N103°20′00″N
Name	John Lydon
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	John Joseph Lydon
Alias	Johnny Rotten
Born	January 31, 1956 London, England, UK
Instrument	Vocals, saxophone, guitar, bass guitar, violin, stroh violin, synthesizer, keyboards
Genre	Punk rockPost-punkAlternative rockNew wave
Occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter
Years active	1975–present
Associated acts	Sex Pistols, Public Image Ltd. }}

John Joseph Lydon (born 31 January 1956), also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s. He is the lead singer of the post-punk band Public Image Ltd., which he founded and fronted from 1978 until 1993, and again from 2009. Throughout his career, Lydon has made controversial or dismissive comments about the royal family and other subjects. ''Q Magazine'' remarked that "somehow he's assumed the status of national treasure."

Lydon's personally crafted image and fashion style led to him being asked to become the singer of the Sex Pistols by their manager, Malcolm McLaren. With the Pistols, he penned singles including "Anarchy in the U.K.", "God Save the Queen" and "Holidays in the Sun", the content of which precipitated the "last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium" in Britain. The band caused nationwide uproar in much of the media, who objected to the content of Lydon’s lyrics, and their antics, which included swearing on live television, in which Steve Jones called Bill Grundy a "fucking rotter". Due to the band's appearance in the media, Lydon was largely seen as the figurehead of the punk movement in the public image although this idea was not widely supported amongst the punk movement itself. Despite the negative reaction that they provoked, they are now regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of popular music.

Lydon left the Pistols in 1978 to found his own band, Public Image Ltd, that was far more experimental in nature, and which has been described as "arguably the first post-punk group".

Although never as commercially successful as the Pistols, the band produced eight albums and a string of singles, including "Death Disco", "Rise" and "Disappointed", before they went on indefinite hiatus in 1993. In subsequent years, Lydon hosted a number of television shows in the UK, USA and Belgium, as well as writing an autobiography, ''Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs'' (1993), and producing some solo musical work, such as the album ''Psycho's Path'' (1997). In the 2000s, Lydon once more took up being the vocalist for both the Sex Pistols and subsequently also Public Image Ltd as well for a number of reunion tours.

Biography

Early life: 1956–1974

Lydon was born in London — something that he later admitted he had his doubts about — on 31 January 1956. His parents, John Christopher and Eileen (née Barry) Lydon, were working class immigrants from Ireland, and moved into a two-room Victorian flat with an outdoor toilet in Benwell Road, Finsbury Park, an area in the north of the city. At the time, the area was largely impoverished, with a high crime rate and a population comprised largely of working class migrants from Ireland and Jamaica, who reportedly suffered racist abuse and name-calling. He spent Summer holidays in his mother's native County Cork, where he also allegedly suffered abuse and name-calling for having an English accent, a prejudice he claims he still receives today even though he travels under an Irish passport.

John was the eldest of four brothers, and as the eldest, John had to look after his brothers because his mother was often ill, several times due to miscarriages. As a child, he lived on the edge of an industrial estate, and would often play with friends in the factories when they were closed. He belonged to a local gang of neighbourhood kids, and would often end up in fights with other groups, something he would later look back on with fond memories: "Hilarious fiascoes, not at all like the knives and guns of today. The meanness wasn't there. It was more like yelling, shouting, throwing stones, and running away giggling. Maybe the reality was coloured by my youth." Describing himself as a "very shy" and "very retiring" kid who was "nervous as hell", he hated going to school, where he would get caned as punishment and where he "had several embarrassing incidents… I would shit my pants and be too scared to ask the teacher to leave the class. I'd sit there in a pants load of poo all day long."

When he was seven years old he contracted spinal meningitis and was hospitalised for a whole year in St. Anne's Hospital in Highgate. Throughout the entire experience he suffered from hallucinations, including seeing a green dragon, and also experienced nausea and headaches. The treatments administered by the nurses involved drawing fluid out of his spine with a surgical needle, something that left him with a permanent spinal curvature, and the meningitis was also responsible for giving him what he would later describe as the "Lydon stare". For him, this experience was "the first step that put me on the road to Rotten".

With his father often away on work, employed variously on building sites or oil rigs, Lydon got his first job aged 10 as a minicab dispatcher, something he kept up for a year whilst the family was in financial difficulty. He disliked his secondary school, the Sir William of York Catholic School in Islington, where initially he was bullied, but aged around 14 or 15 he "broke out of the mold" and began to fight back at what he saw as the oppressive nature of the school teachers, whom he felt instigated and encouraged the kids to all be the same and be "anti-anyone-who-doesn't-quite-fit-the-mold." Following the completion of his O-levels at school, he got into a row with his father, who disliked Lydon's long hair, and so, agreeing to get it cut, the teenager not only had it cut, but in an act of rebellion dyed it bright green. Growing up as a teenager, he listened mostly to rock bands like Hawkwind, Captain Beefheart, Alice Cooper and Iggy and the Stooges — bands his mother also used to like, a fact which somewhat embarrassed him — as well as more mainstream groups like T. Rex and Gary Glitter.

Aged 15, he was kicked out of the school after a run in with a teacher, and subsequently went to a state school, Hackney and Kingsway Princeton College, where he befriended John Simon Ritchie, who in later years would become better known as Sid Vicious. It was Lydon who gave him this nickname, after his parents' pet hamster. Lydon and Vicious began squatting in a house in the wealthy Hampstead area with a group of ageing hippies and stopped bothering to go to college, which was often far away from where they were living. Meanwhile, he began working on building sites during the summer, employment that his father was able to help him with. He also got a job at a children's play centre in Finsbury Park after friends had recommended him for the job. It was here that he taught woodwork to some of the older children, but he was eventually fired after parents complained that somebody "weird" with bright green hair was teaching their children.

Lydon and his friends, including Vicious, John Gray, Jah Wobble, Dave Crowe and Tony Purcell, began going to many of the London clubs, such as the Lacey Lady in Ilford, as well as reggae clubs which primarily catered to the black community, and to gay clubs, which were places where, according to Lydon, ''"you could be yourself, nobody bothered you" and "they always had the best records"''.

1975–1978: Sex Pistols and the punk movement

In 1975, Lydon was among a group of youths who regularly hung around Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's fetish clothing shop SEX. McLaren had returned from a brief stint travelling with American protopunk band the New York Dolls, and he was working on promoting a new band formed by Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook called The Sex Pistols. McLaren was impressed with Lydon's ragged look and unique sense of style, particularly his orange hair and modified Pink Floyd T-shirt (with the band members' eyes scratched out and the words ''I Hate'' scrawled in felt-tip pen above the band's logo). After tunelessly singing Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" to the accompaniment of the shop's jukebox, Lydon was chosen as the band's frontman.

In 1977, the band released "God Save the Queen" during the week of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. At the time, August 1977, Lydon commented –

Lydon was also interested in dub music. McLaren was said to have been upset when Lydon revealed during a radio interview that his influences included progressive experimentalists like Magma, Can, Captain Beefheart and Van der Graaf Generator.

Tensions between Lydon and bassist Glen Matlock arose. The reasons for this are disputed, but Lydon claimed in his autobiography that he believed Matlock to be too white-collar and middle-class and that Matlock was "always going on about nice things like the Beatles". Matlock stated in his own autobiography that most of the tension in the band, and between himself and Lydon, were orchestrated by McLaren. Matlock quit and as a replacement, Lydon recommended his school friend John Simon Ritchie. Although Ritchie was an incompetent musician, McLaren agreed that he had the look the band wanted: pale, emaciated, spike-haired, with ripped clothes and a perpetual sneer. Rotten dubbed him "Sid Vicious" as a joke, taking the name from his pet hamster, named Sid the Vicious. During a brief meeting on 12 August 1977 in CBGB's according to Kit and Morgan Benson's biography, Ritchie got his name after Sid the hamster bit him on his hand, and he exclaimed: "Sid is really vicious!"

Vicious' chaotic relationship with girlfriend Nancy Spungen, and his worsening heroin addiction, caused a great deal of friction among the band members, particularly with Lydon, whose sarcastic remarks often exacerbated the situation. Lydon closed the final Sid Vicious-era Sex Pistols concert in San Francisco's Winterland in January 1978 with a rhetorical question to the audience: "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Shortly thereafter, McLaren, Jones, and Cook went to Brazil to meet and record with former train robber Ronnie Biggs. Lydon declined to go, deriding the concept as a whole and feeling that they were attempting to make a hero out of a criminal who attacked a train driver and stole "working-class money".

The Sex Pistols' disintegration was documented in Julian Temple's satirical pseudo-biopic, ''The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle'', in which Jones, Cook and Vicious each played a character. Matlock only appeared in previously-recorded live footage and as an animation and did not participate personally. Lydon refused to have anything to do with ''The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle'', feeling that McLaren had far too much control over the project. Although Lydon was highly critical of the film, many years later he agreed to let Temple direct the Sex Pistols documentary ''The Filth and the Fury''. That film included new interviews with band members hidden in shadow, as if they were in a witness protection program. It featured an uncharacteristically emotional Lydon choking up as he discussed Vicious' decline and death. Lydon denounced previous journalistic works regarding the Sex Pistols in the introduction to his autobiography, ''Rotten – No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs'', which he described as "as close to the truth as one can get".

1978–1993: Public Image Limited, Time Zone and ''Copkiller''

In 1978, Lydon formed the post-punk outfit Public Image Limited (PiL). PiL lasted for 14 years with Lydon as the only consistent member. The group enjoyed some early critical acclaim for its 1979 album, ''Metal Box'' (a.k.a. ''Second Edition''), and influenced many bands of the later industrial movement. The band was lauded for its innovation and rejection of traditional musical forms. Musicians citing their influence have ranged from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Massive Attack.

The first lineup of the band included bassist Jah Wobble and former Clash guitarist Keith Levene. They released the albums ''Public Image'' (also known as ''First Issue''), ''Metal Box'' and ''Paris in the Spring'' (live). Wobble then left and Lydon and Levene made ''The Flowers of Romance''. Then came ''This Is What You Want...This Is What You Get'' featuring Martin Atkins on drums (he had also appeared on ''Metal Box'' and ''The Flowers of Romance''); it featured their biggest hit, "This Is Not A Love Song", which hit #5 in 1983.

In 1983, Lydon co-starred with Harvey Keitel in the movie thriller ''Corrupt'', a.k.a. ''Copkiller'' and ''The Order of Death''. While the film was generally panned, Lydon won some praise for his role as a psychotic rich boy. Lydon would act again occasionally after that, such as a very small role in the 2000 film, ''The Independent'', and as the host of the skateboard film, ''Sorry'', featuring the Flip Skate Team.

In 1984, Lydon worked with Time Zone on their best-known single, "World Destruction". A collaboration between Lydon, Afrika Bambaataa and producer/bassist Bill Laswell, the single was an early example of "rap rock", along with Run-DMC. The song appears on Afrika Bambaataa's 1997 compilation album, ''Zulu Groove''. It was arranged by Laswell after Lydon and Bambaataa had acknowledged respect for each others' work, as described in an interview from 1984: :Afrika Bambaataa: "I was talking to Bill Laswell saying I need somebody who's really crazy, man, and he thought of John Lydon. I knew he was perfect because I'd seen this movie that he'd made (''Corrupt'', a.k.a. ''Copkiller'' and ''The Order of Death''), I knew about all the Sex Pistols and Public Image stuff, so we got together and we did a smashing crazy version, and a version where he cussed the Queen something terrible, which was never released." :John Lydon: "We went in, put a drum beat down on the machine and did the whole thing in about four-and-a-half hours. It was very, very quick."

The single also featured Bernie Worrell, Nicky Skopelitis and Aïyb Dieng, all of whom would later play on PiL's ''Album''; Laswell also played bass and produced. In 1986 Public Image Limited released ''Album'' (also known as ''Compact Disc'' and ''Cassette''). Most of the tracks on this album were written by Lydon and Bill Laswell. The musicians were session musicians including bassist Jonas Hellborg, guitarist Steve Vai and Cream drummer Ginger Baker. Like the previous album, this also featured a hit, the anti-apartheid anthem "Rise". The band's performance on the dance/concert TV show ''American Bandstand'' saw Lydon giving up on lip synching not long into the performance and dancing with audience members instead.

In 1987 a new lineup was formed consisting of Lydon, former Magazine, Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Armoury Show guitarist John McGeoch, Alan Dias on bass guitar in addition to drummer Bruce Smith and Lu Edmunds. This lineup released ''Happy?'' and all except Lu Edmunds released the album ''9'' in 1989. In 1992 Lydon, Dias and McGeoch were joined by Curt Bisquera on drums and Gregg Arreguin on rhythm guitar for the album ''That What Is Not''. This album also features the Tower of Power on two songs and Jimmie Wood on harmonica. Lydon, McGeoch and Dias also wrote the song "Criminal" for the movie ''Point Break''. After this album, in 1993, Lydon put PiL on indefinite hiatus, in which state they remain today. Recently, Lydon agreed to revive PiL to do a UK tour in December which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Metal Box album.

1993–2006: solo album, autobiography and celebrity status

In 1993, Lydon's first autobiography, ''Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs'', was published. Aided by Keith and Kent Zimmerman, and featuring contributions from figures including Paul Cook, Chrissie Hynde, Billy Idol and Don Letts, the work covered his life up until the collapse of the Sex Pistols. Describing the book, he stated that it "is as close to the truth as one can get, looking back on events from the inside. All the people in this book were actually there, and this book is as much their point of view as it is mine. This means contradictions and insults have not been edited, and neither have the compliments, if any. I have no time for lies or fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die." In December 2005, Lydon told ''Q'' that he is working on a second autobiography to cover the PiL years.

In the mid-1990s, Lydon hosted ''Rotten Day'', a daily syndicated US radio feature written by George Gimarc. The format of the show was a look back at events in popular music and culture occurring on the particular broadcast calendar date about which Lydon would offer cynical commentary. The show was originally developed as a radio vehicle for Gimarc's book, ''Punk Diary 1970–79'', but after bringing Lydon onboard it was expanded to cover notable events from most of the second half of the 20th century.

In 1997 Lydon released a solo album on Virgin Records called ''Psycho's Path''. He wrote all the songs and played all the instruments. In one song, "Sun", he sang the vocals through a toilet roll. It did not sell particularly well and received mixed reviews from critics. The U.S. version included a Chemical Brothers remix of the song "Open Up" by Leftfield with vocals by Lydon. This song is heard during the title menu of the computer game ''All Star Baseball 2000'' (Acclaim Entertainment). The song was also a club hit in the U.S. and a big hit in England. John Lydon has recorded a second solo-album but it has not been released. One song from the album was released on ''The Best of British £1 Notes''.

In November 1997, Lydon appeared on ''Judge Judy'' fighting a suit filed by his former tour drummer Robert Williams for breach of contract, assault and battery. Lydon won the case, although Judge Judy Sheindlin wasn't overly impressed with Lydon's antics and told him to keep quiet several times.

In 2000, Lydon hosted ''Rotten TV'', a short-lived show on VH1. The show offered his acerbic commentary on American politics and pop culture. In one segment he attempted to take Neil Young to task for not appearing on the show, making fun of Young's singing style and pointing out that Young had once proclaimed Johnny Rotten "the king" in the song "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)".

In 2003 Lydon appeared as a panelist on an episode of Richard Belzer's ill-fated conspiracy-themed panel show, ''The Belzer Connection''. The episode in question posed the query, "Was there a conspiracy involved in the death of Princess Diana?" For his part, Lydon responded to suggestions of British Royal Family involvement by proclaiming "If the Royal Family was going to assassinate someone, they would have gotten rid of me a long time ago." The series ran for only two episodes.

In January 2004, Lydon appeared on the British reality television programme, ''I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!'', which took place in Australia. He proved he still had the capability to shock by calling the show's viewers "fucking cunts" during a live broadcast. The television regulator and ITV, the channel broadcasting the show, between them received 91 complaints about Lydon's language.

In a February 2004 interview with the Scottish ''Sunday Mirror'', Lydon said that he and his wife "should be dead", since on 21 December 1988, thanks to delays caused by his wife's packing, they missed the doomed Pan Am Flight 103. During this interview, Lydon said that the real reason for him leaving ''Get Me Out of Here!'' was his fear over the Pan Am incident and the "appalling" refusal of the programme makers to let him know whether his wife had arrived safely in Australia. In an interview previous to the show's first episode, he had described it as "moronic", and throughout the show's run he had displayed an indifferent attitude to staying and threatened to walk out on numerous occasions. Thirty hours following ex-football star Neil Ruddock's departure, Lydon left the show for unclear reasons, although he had been very visibly angry both to and about fellow star Jordan. British newspapers claimed that Lydon had won a £100 bet with Ruddock over who would stay in the longest. Lydon, however, stated on air that he felt he would win outright and that it would be unfair to the other celebrities for him to win.

After ''I'm a Celebrity...'', he presented a documentary about insects and spiders called ''John Lydon's Megabugs'' that was shown on the Discovery Channel. ''Radio Times'' described him as "more an enthusiast than an expert". He went to present two further programmes: ''John Lydon Goes Ape'' in which he searched for gorillas in Central Africa, and ''John Lydon's Shark Attack'' in which he swam with sharks off South Africa.

In 2005, he appeared in ''Reynebeau & Rotten'', a five episode documentary on Canvas, the cultural channel of the Flemish public broadcaster VRT, in which Lydon guided Belgian journalist Marc Reynebeau through Great Britain in a chauffeured Rolls Royce, having a go at things typically 'British'. When asked why he was chosen as a guide, he answered that he was the cheapest one available. After the show had been broadcast, Lydon claimed in an interview with the popular Belgian magazine ''HUMO'' that he was very unhappy with the way they handled post-production and was very angry with the way they depicted him in this particular show. He claimed that the creators mainly showed his humorous, sometimes clownish antics, instead of focusing on his personal opinions and arguably philosophical conversations he had with Marc Reynebeau. Lydon was reportedly infuriated that the production company used songs from the Sex Pistols' catalogue, without consulting all the remaining members of the band, including him.

Lydon broadcast a short pod on Current TV in which he critiqued The Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek's previously broadcast pod. Manzarek's advice to young people had been to "fuck your brains out." He emphasised this especially for 25-year-old women, saying that "it won't last." Lydon had several choice words for Manzarek and told young people that the best thing they could do was get an education because knowledge is free. In late 2008 Lydon appeared in an advertising campaign for "Country Life", a popular brand of butter, on British television. Lydon was widely mocked as a sell-out for this move.

Lydon defended the move by stating that the main reason he accepted the offer was to raise money to reform Public Image Limited from the ground-up without a record deal. The advertising campaign proved to be highly successful, with sales of the brand raising 85% in the quarter following, which many in the media attributed to Lydon's presence in the advert.

2006–2009: Sex Pistols revival

Although Lydon spent years furiously denying that the Sex Pistols would ever perform together again, the band re-united (with Matlock returning on bass) in the 1990s, and continues to perform occasionally. In 2004, Lydon publicly refused to allow the Rhino record label to include any Sex Pistols songs on its box set ''No Thanks!: The 70s Punk Rebellion''. In 2006, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Sex Pistols, but the band refused to attend the ceremony or acknowledge the induction, complaining that they had been asked for large sums of money to attend and stating that it went against everything the band stood for.

In June 2007, Lydon, Jones and Cook re-recorded "Pretty Vacant" in a Los Angeles studio for the video game ''Skate'' and, in a radio interview in the same month, Lydon announced that the Sex Pistols may perform again over the Christmas period. They also re-recorded "Anarchy in the UK" for the video game ''Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock''. In September 2007, Lydon announced that the Sex Pistols would play a concert for the 30th anniversary of ''Never Mind the Bollocks'' at the Brixton Academy in London on 8 November 2007. Due to popular demand, four additional concerts were added, as well as further shows in Manchester and Glasgow. The Sex Pistols appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival 2008 as the headlining act on Saturday night. They also appeared at the Peace and Love Festival (Sweden), Electric Picnic (Ireland), Lokerse Feesten festival in Lokeren (Belgium), the Live at Loch Lomond Festival (Scotland), Heineken Open'er Festival (Gdynia, Poland), Paredes de Coura Festival (Portugal), Traffic Free Festival (Turin, Italy), and EXIT festival (Serbia), the same summer.

2009 – PiL reformation

In September 2009 it was announced that PiL would reform, including earlier members Bruce Smith and Lu Edmonds, for a number of Christmas shows in the UK. Lydon financed the reunion using money he earned doing a UK TV commercial for Country Life butter. "The money that I earned from that has now gone completely—lock stock and barrel—into reforming PiL," said Lydon.

Controversies

2008 Ritz Carlton Hotel incident

On 23 January 2008 Lydon was reportedly involved in a string of offences, including sexual harrassment, physical assault and battery in Marina del Rey. Roxane Davis, who was a talent producer for the television program ''Bodog Battle Of The Bands'', claimed that she was punched in the face by Lydon after being shouted at and called a "cunt" several times.

Lydon was one of three celebrity judges appearing on the reality show and Davis was responsible for "handling" them. According to the story appearing in the ''Belfast Telegraph'', Lydon first refused accommodation at the Radisson hotel, stating it was sub-standard. After he and his personal assistant were relocated to the Ritz Carlton, Lydon reportedly became infuriated with the hotel staff after he was given a room lacking an interior connecting door to his assistant's room. According to the lawsuit, Davis heard Lydon screaming at a hotel employee, she approached him and he began screaming at her. After Davis apologised, Lydon and his assistant began screaming sexual epithets and obscene insults at Davis, and Lydon then punched her in the face. Davis reportedly initiated legal action on 19 causes of action, including retaliation, wrongful termination, assault and battery. Davis sued in June 2008 and filed an amended version about four months later. On January 28, 2010, however, Davis's lawyers filed papers in Los Angeles Superior Court stating that the case was resolved, although no terms were divulged.

2008 Summercase incident

Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke claims he was left with severe facial bruising and a split lip following what he alleges was a verbal and physical racist assault by three members of Lydon's entourage. The incident occurred on the evening of 19 July 2008 at the Summercase festival in Barcelona while the bands were socialising backstage. In a statement to NME, Lydon denied the allegations of his involvement in this assault. After the report, Super Furry Animals lead singer Gruff Rhys came forward in support of Okereke's claim, saying "the statements Kele has said are absolutely true, it did happen."

A British tabloid accused Lydon of racism due to the incident, something he strongly denied during an appearance on ''The One Show'', claiming that they were "atrocious" and "hurtful". He went on to say that:

He went on to say, when asked if he was racist, that:

2008 Duffy incident

At the 2008 MoJo awards ceremony, Welsh singer Duffy attempted to say hello to Lydon when, according to her; "I was literally slammed against the wall, pinned by his arm at my throat. He called me a cunt." Other reports indicate a slightly different scenario, that Lydon "was being interviewed and he had his back to (the) door and she banged into him and then grabbed him. He then turned round in no uncertain terms to tell her to back off him". Lydon later claimed he hadn't realised who Duffy was, saying; "people are trying to pin something on me. I don't know who this Duffy person is, or why she'd want to get publicity from this. I was doing an interview and she came up behind me—I didn't see anything. I've been with my wife for 30 years and I've been brought up to be polite and have respect for people, especially women."

Adam Sherwin of ''The Times'', witnessed the incident and has given an account which differs from that offered by Lydon, placing the blame for the physical assault on Lydon's personal assistant.

2010 Performing in Israel

Lydon played with Public Image Ltd in Tel Aviv, Israel, in August 2010. He refused to accept calls for him not to go to Israel.

Lydon has also commented:

Origin of Johnny Rotten moniker

The origin of John Lydon's stage name, Johnny Rotten, has had two longstanding explanations. One, given in a ''Daily Telegraph'' feature interview with Lydon in 2007, was that he was given the name in the mid 1970s, when his lack of oral hygiene led to his teeth turning green. Another story says the name was given to him by Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, who saw Lydon's teeth and exclaimed, "You're rotten, you are!"

In 2008, however, Lydon had extensive dental work performed in Los Angeles, California at a cost of a reported US $22,000. Lydon explained that it wasn't done out of vanity: "It was necessity ... all those rotten teeth were seriously beginning to corrupt my system".

Personal life

Lydon is married to Nora Forster, a publishing heiress from Germany. He was the stepfather of Forster's late daughter, Ari Up, who herself had been the lead singer in the post-punk band, The Slits. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California. Lydon's parents raised him and his brothers in the Roman Catholic faith, but he "never had any godlike epiphanies or thought that God had anything to do with this dismal occurrence called life."

Since leaving the Sex Pistols he has been a property developer.

Lydon has been a fan of Oscar Wilde since he studied his works at school, when he came to the conclusion that "his stuff was fucking brilliant. What an attitude to life!… He turned out to be the biggest poof on earth at a time when that was completely unacceptable. What a genius." He is critical of the upper classes, stating that they "parasite off the population as their friends help them along", but he equally criticises the working classes, claiming that "We're lazy, good-for-nothing bastards, absolute cop-outs [who] never accept responsibility for our own lives and that's why we'll always be downtrodden." He opposes all forms of segregation in schools, not only through the private and state school division, but also with single-sex schools; "It doesn't make sense. It's a much better environment with girls in the class. You learn a lot more, as diversity makes things more interesting."

He has also criticised the paramilitary organisations involved in the Northern Ireland conflict, remarking that both the Irish Republican Army and the Ulster Defence Association were "like two mafia gangs punching each other out… They both run their extortion rackets and plague people to no end." He remarked that "The Northern Ireland problem is a terrible thing, and its only the ignorance of the people living outside of it that keeps it going", but that ultimately the British government's exploitative attitude to the problem was in his opinion the main cause.

Discography

All chart positions are UK.

Sex Pistols

Studio albums

''Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols'' (Virgin, 1977) Platinum #1

Compilations and live albums

''The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle'' (Virgin, 1979)

''Some Product: Carri On Sex Pistols'' (Virgin, 1979)

''Kiss This'' (Virgin, 1992)

''Never Mind the Bollocks / Spunk'' (aka ''This is Crap'') (Virgin, 1996)

''Filthy Lucre Live'' (Virgin, 1996)

''The Filth and the Fury'' (Virgin, 2000)

''Jubilee'' (Virgin, 2002)

''Sex Pistols Box Set'' (Virgin, 2002)

Singles

"Anarchy in the UK" – 1976 #38

"God Save the Queen" – 1977 #2

"Pretty Vacant" – 1977 #6

"Holidays in the Sun" – 1977 #8

"(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone" – 1980 #21

"Anarchy in the UK" (re-issue) – 1992 #33

"Pretty Vacant" (live) – 1996 #18

"God Save the Queen" (re-issue) – 2002 #15

Public Image Ltd.

Studio albums

''First Issue'' (Virgin, 1978), #22

''Metal Box'' (a.k.a. Second Edition) (Virgin, 1979) #18, US #171

''Flowers of Romance'' (Virgin, 1981) #11, US #114

''Commercial Zone'' (PiL Records, 1983)

''This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get'' (Virgin, 1984)

''Album'' (Virgin, 1986)

''Happy?'' (Virgin, 1987)

''9'' (Virgin, 1989)

''That What Is Not'' (Virgin, 1992)

Compilations and live albums

''Paris in the Spring (Paris au Printemps)'' (Virgin, 1980)

''Live in Tokyo'' (Virgin, 1983)

''The Greatest Hits, So Far'' (Virgin, 1990)

Singles

"Public Image" – 1978 #9

"Death Disco" – 1979 #20

"Memories" – 1979 #60

"Flowers of Romance" – 1981 #24

"This Is Not a Love Song" – 1983 #5

"Bad Life" – 1984 #71

"Rise" – 1986 #11

"Home" – 1986 #75

"Seattle" – 1987 #47

"The Body" – 1987 #100

"Disappointed" – 1989 #38

"Don't Ask Me" – 1990 #22

"Cruel" – 1992 #49

The Lydons and The O'Donnells

Studio albums

''Family Album'' (MBC records, 1986)

Time Zone

Single

"World Destruction" – 1984

Solo

Studio albums

''Psycho's Path'' (Virgin, 1997)

Compilations

''The Best of British £1 Notes'' (Lydon, PiL & Sex Pistols) (Virgin/EMI, 2005)

Singles

"Open Up" (with Leftfield) – 1993 – #11 UK

"Sun" – 1997 – #42 UK

References

Bibliography

Lydon, John (1993). ''Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs''. Hodder & Stoughton

External links

John Lydon — official website

John Lydon discography on Discogs

Johnny Rotten on The Hour

interview with John Lydon at SuicideGirls

John Lydon fronts UK butter campaign

Category:1956 births Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English male singers Category:English punk rock singers Category:English people of Irish descent Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:British republicans Category:Living people Category:People from London Category:Sex Pistols members Category:Public Image Ltd. members Category:Participants in British reality television series Category:I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here! contestants Category:Pigface members Category:The Golden Palominos members Category:Squatters Category:People from Finsbury Park

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Coordinates	3°49′00″N103°20′00″N
name	Camille Paglia
birth date	April 02, 1947
birth place	Endicott, New York
occupation	Professor, cultural critic
education	Binghamton UniversityYale University
nationality	United States
period	1974–
subject	Popular culture, art, poetry, sex, film, feminism
notableworks	''Sexual Personae''
influences	Harold Bloom, Norman O. Brown, Jane Ellen Harrison, Sigmund Freud, James George Frazer, Simone de Beauvoir, Marshall McLuhan, Friedrich Nietzsche, Walter Pater, G. Wilson Knight, Marquis de Sade, Oscar Wilde
signature	}}

Camille Anna Paglia (), (born April 2, 1947) is an American author, teacher, and social critic. Paglia, a self-described dissident feminist, has been a Professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1984. She is the author of the best selling 1990 work of literary criticism ''Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson'', and four other books, including essay collections, a study of Alfred Hitchcock's ''The Birds'', and ''Break, Blow, Burn'' on poetry. She writes articles on art, popular culture, feminism, and politics for mainstream newspapers and magazines. Paglia has celebrated Madonna and taken radical libertarian positions on controversial social issues such as abortion, homosexuality and drug use. She is known as a critic of American feminism, and is also strongly critical of the influence of French writers such as Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault.

Overview

Paglia, who has been characterized variously as a "contrarian academic" and a feminist "bête noire", a "witty controversialist", and a maverick, is known for her critical views of many aspects of modern culture, including feminism and liberalism. Margaret Wente has called Paglia "a writer in a category of her own...a feminist who hates affirmative action; an atheist who respects religion" and "a Democrat who thinks her party doesn't get it". Martha Duffy writes that Paglia "advocates a core curriculum based mostly on the classics" and rails against "chic French theorists Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan", and "has a strong libertarian streak — on subjects like pornography — that go straight to her '60s coming-of-age." Elaine Showalter has called Paglia a "radical libertarian", noting her libertarian stands on abortion, sodomy, prostitution, drug use, and suicide. Paglia has denounced feminist academics and women's studies, celebrated popular culture and Madonna, and become a media celebrity, writing op-eds and gossip columns, appearing on television and telling her story to journalists.

Paglia has said that she is willing to have her entire career judged on the basis of her composition of what she considers to be "probably the most important sentence that she has ever written": "God is man's greatest idea."

Paglia's ''Sexual Personae'' was rejected by numerous publishers, but when finally published, became a best seller, reaching seventh place on the paperback best-seller list, a rare accomplishment for a scholarly book. ''Sexual Personae'' was published by Yale University Press after being rejected by seven other publishers. Paglia called it her "prison book", commenting, "I felt like Cervantes, Genet. It took all the resources of being Catholic to cut myself off and sit in my cell." ''Sexual Personae'' has been called an "energetic, Freud-friendly reading of Western art", one that seemed "heretical and perverse", at the height of political correctness; according to Daniel Nester, its characterization of "William Blake as the British Marquis de Sade or Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson as 'self-ruling hermaphrodites who cannot mate' still pricks up many an English major’s ears."

Paglia is a devotee of Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater, cherishing "performance, artifice and play rather than earnestness." She has expressed admiration for Dorothy Parker and Mary McCarthy, as well as for models, singers and movie stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna, and Barbra Streisand.

In 2005, Paglia was named as one of the top 100 public intellectuals by the journals ''Foreign Policy'' and ''Prospect''.

Personal life

Paglia was born in Endicott, New York, the elder daughter of Pasquale and Lydia Anne (Colapietro) Paglia. Both of her parents immigrated to the United States from Italy. Paglia attended primary school in rural Oxford, New York, where her family lived in a working farmhouse. Her father, a veteran of World War II, taught at the Oxford Academy high school. In 1957, her family moved to Syracuse, New York, so that her father could begin graduate school; he eventually became a professor of Romance languages at Le Moyne College. She attended the Edward Smith Elementary school, T. Aaron Levy Junior High and William Nottingham High School. In 1992, Carmelia Metosh, her Latin teacher for three years, said "She always has been controversial. Whatever statements were being made (in class), she had to challenge them. She made good points then, as she does now." Paglia thanked Metosh in the acknowledgements to ''Sexual Personae'', later describing her as "the dragon lady of Latin studies, who breathed fire at principals and school boards".

She took a variety of names when she was at Spruce Ridge Camp, including Anastasia (her confirmation name, inspired by the Ingrid Bergman film ''Anastasia''); Stacy; and Stanley. An iconic experience was the time the outhouse exploded when she poured too much lime into it. "It symbolized everything I would do with my life and work. Excess and extravagance and explosiveness. I would be someone who would look into the latrine of culture, into pornography and crime and psychopathology...and I would drop the bomb into it".

For over a decade, Paglia was the partner of artist Alison Maddex. Paglia legally adopted Maddex's son (who was born in 2002). In 2009, the couple separated.

Education

Paglia entered Harpur College at Binghamton University in 1964. The same year, Paglia's poem "Atrophy" was published in her local newspaper. She later wrote that the biggest impact on her thinking were the classes taught by poet Milton Kessler. "He believed in the responsiveness of the body, and of the activation of the senses to literature... And oh did I believe in that". She graduated from Harpur as class valedictorian in 1968.

According to Paglia, while in college she punched a "marauding drunk", and takes pride in having been put on probation for committing 39 pranks.

Paglia attended Yale as a graduate student, and she claims to have been the only open lesbian at Yale Graduate School from 1968 to 1972. While at Yale, Paglia quarreled with Rita Mae Brown, whom she later characterised as "then darkly nihilist", and argued with the New Haven, Connecticut Women's Liberation Rock Band when they dismissed the Rolling Stones as sexist.

At Yale, Paglia was mentored by Harold Bloom. ''Sexual Personae'' was then titled "The Androgynous Dream: the image of the androgyne as it appears in literature and is embodied in the psyche of the artist, with reference to the visual arts and the cinema".

Paglia read Susan Sontag, and aspired to emulate what she called her "celebrity, her positioning in the media world at the border of the high arts and popular culture." Paglia first saw Sontag in person on October 15, 1969 (Vietnam Moratorium Day), when Paglia, then a Yale graduate student, was visiting a friend at Princeton. In 1973, Paglia, a militant feminist and open lesbian, was working at her first academic job at Bennington College. She considered Sontag a radical who had challenged male dominance. The same year, Paglia drove to an appearance by Sontag at Dartmouth, hoping to arrange for her to speak at Bennington, but found it difficult to find the money for Sontag's speaking fee; Paglia relied on help from Richard Tristman, a friend of Sontag's, to persuade her to come. Bennington College agreed to pay Sontag $700 (twice what they usually offered speakers but only half Sontag's usual fee) to give a talk about contemporary issues. Paglia staged a poster campaign urging students to attend Sontag's appearance. Sontag arrived at Bennington Carriage Barn, where she was to speak, more than an hour late, and then began reading what Paglia recalled as a "boring and bleak" short story about "nothing" in the style of a French New Novel.

As a result of Sontag's Bennington College appearance, Paglia began to become disenchanted with her, believing that she had withdrawn from confrontation with the academic world, and that her "mandarin disdain" for popular culture showed an elitism that betrayed her early work, which had suggested that high and low culture both reflected a new sensibility. In 1992, Paglia attacked Sontag; according to Carl Rollyson and Lisa Paddock, this was a way of saying, "I'm the next stage of you." Questioned about Paglia by the Brazilian magazine ''Istoe'', Sontag said she should form a rock band. Sontag later said of Paglia, "We used to think Norman Mailer was bad, but she makes Norman Mailer look like Jane Austen".

Career

In the fall 1972, Paglia began teaching at Bennington College, which hired her in part thanks to a recommendation from Harold Bloom. At Bennington, she befriended the philosopher James Fessenden, who first taught there that very semester.

Through her study of the classics and the scholarly work of Jane Ellen Harrison, James George Frazer, Erich Neumann and others, Paglia developed a theory of sexual history that contradicted a number of ideas in vogue at the time, hence her criticism of Marija Gimbutas, Carolyn Heilbrun, Kate Millett and others. She laid out her ideas on matriarchy, androgyny, homosexuality, sadomasochism and other topics in her Yale Ph.D. thesis ''Sexual Personae: The Androgyne in Literature and Art,'' which she defended in December 1974. In September 1976, she gave a public lecture drawing on that dissertation, in which she discussed Edmund Spenser's ''Faerie Queene'', followed by remarks on Diana Ross, Gracie Allen, Yul Brynner, and Stephane Audran.

Paglia "nearly came to blows with the founding members of the women's studies program at the State University of New York at Albany, when they categorically denied that hormones influence human experience or behavior. Similar fights with feminists and academics culminated in a 1978 incident which led her to resign from Bennington a year later. After a lengthy standoff with the administration, Paglia accepted a settlement from the college and resigned the following year.

Paglia finished ''Sexual Personae'' in the early 1980s, but could not get it published. She supported herself with visiting and part-time teaching jobs at Yale, Wesleyan, and other Connecticut colleges. Her paper, "The Apollonian Androgyne and the Faerie Queen", was published in ''English Literary Renaissance'', Winter 1979, and her dissertation was cited by J. Hillis Miller in his April 1980 article "Wuthering Heights and the Ellipses of Interpretation", in ''Journal of Religion in Literature'', but her academic career was otherwise stalled. In a 1995 letter to Boyd Holmes, she recalled: "I earned a little extra money by doing some local features reporting for a New Haven alternative newspaper (''The Advocate'') in the early 1980s". She wrote articles on New Haven's historic pizzerias and on an old house that was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

In 1984, she joined the faculty of the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, which merged in 1987 with the Philadelphia College of Art to become the University of the Arts.

Paglia is on the editorial board of the classics and humanities journal ''Arion'' and has been writing a monthly column for Salon.com since the late 1990s (currently on hiatus). Paglia has announced that she is currently working on "a study of the visual arts intended as a companion book to ''Break, Blow, Burn''".

Paglia cooperated with Carl Rollyson and Lisa Paddock in their writing of ''Susan Sontag: The Making of an Icon'', sending them detailed letters from which they quoted with her permission. Rollyson and Paddock note that Sontag "had her lawyer put our publisher on notice" when she realized that they were investigating her life and career.

Paglia and feminism

Some feminist critics have characterized Paglia as an "anti-feminist feminist", critical of central features of much contemporary feminism but holding out "her own special variety of feminist affirmation." Elaine Showalter notes Paglia's admiration for Simone de Beauvoir and ''The Second Sex'' ("the supreme work of modern feminism...its deep learning and massive argument are unsurpassed") as well as Germaine Greer, but Martha Duffy observes that Paglia "does not hesitate to hurl brazen insults" at several feminists including Greer, whom Paglia accused of becoming "a drone in three years" as a result of her early success; Paglia also called Diana Fuss' output "just junk - appalling!" Showalter calls Paglia "unique in the hyperbole and virulence of her hostility to virtually all the prominent feminist activists, public figures, writers and scholars of her generation", mentioning Carolyn Heilbrun, Judith Butler, Carol Gilligan, Marilyn French, Zoe Baird, Kimba Wood, Susan Thomases, and Hillary Clinton as targets of her criticism.

Paglia has accused Kate Millett of starting "the repressive, Stalinist style in feminist criticism...". Paglia has repeatedly criticized Patricia Ireland, former president of the National Organization for Women, calling her a "sanctimonious", unappealing role model for women whose "smug, arrogant" attitude is accompanied by "painfully limited processes of thought". Paglia contends that under Ireland's leadership, NOW "damaged and marginalized the women's movement". Paglia has called feminist philosopher Martha Nussbaum a "PC diva", and accused her of borrowing her ideas without acknowledgement. She further contends that Nussbaum's "preparation or instinct for sex analysis is dubious at best".

Many feminists have criticized Paglia; Christina Hoff Sommers calls her "Perhaps the most conspicuous target of feminist opprobrium", noting that the ''Women's Review of Books'' described ''Sexual Personae'' as a work of "crackpot extremism", "an apologia for a new post-Cold War fascism", and patriarchy's "counter-assault on feminism." Sommers relates that when Paglia appeared at a Brown University forum, feminists signed a petition censuring her and demanding an investigation into procedures for inviting speakers to the campus.

Naomi Wolf traded a series of sometimes personal attacks with Paglia throughout the early 1990s. In ''The New Republic'', Wolf labeled Paglia, "the nipple-pierced person's Phyllis Schlafly who poses as a sexual renegade but is in fact the most dutiful of patriarchal daughters" and characterized Paglia's writing as "full of howling intellectual dishonesty".

Gloria Steinem said of Paglia that, "Her calling herself a feminist is sort of like a Nazi saying they're not anti-Semitic." Paglia said that Steinem, who she accused of not having read her, had compared her to Hitler and ''Sexual Personae'' to ''Mein Kampf''. Paglia called Steinem "the Stalin of feminism."

Katha Pollitt has characterized Paglia as one of a "seemingly endless parade of social critics [who] have achieved celebrity by portraying not sexism but feminism as the problem." Pollitt writes that Paglia has glorified "male dominance", and has been able to get away with calling the Spur Posse California high school date-rape gang "beautiful", among other things "that might make even Rush Limbaugh blanch", because she is a woman.

Paglia's view that rape is sexually motivated has been endorsed by evolutionary psychologists Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer; they comment that, "Paglia...urges women to be skeptical toward the feminist 'party line' on the subject, to become better informed about risk factors, and to use the information to lower their risk of rape."

Paglia and French thought

Paglia is critical of the influence modern French writers have had on the humanities, claiming that universities are in the "thrall" of French Post-structuralists, that in the works of Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault, she never once found a sentence that interested her and that Post-structuralism has broken the link between the word and the thing, and thus endangers the western canon. François Cusset writes that Paglia, like other major American public intellectuals after World War II, owes her broader recognition mainly to the political repercussions of polemics that first erupted on college campuses, in her case to a polemic against foreign intellectualism. He says she achieved phenomenal success when she called Foucault a "bastard", thereby providing (together with Alan Sokal's ''Social Text'' parody) the best evidence for Paul de Man's view that theory should be defined negatively, based on the opposition it arouses. However, Paglia's assessment of French writers is not purely negative. She has called Simone de Beauvoir's ''The Second Sex'' "brilliant" and "the only thing undergraduate sex study needs", and identified Jean-Paul Sartre's work as part of a high period in literature. Paglia has made positive comments about Roland Barthes' ''Mythologies'' and Gilles Deleuze's ''Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty'', while finding both men's later work flawed. Of Gaston Bachelard, who influenced Paglia, she wrote "[his] dignified yet fluid phenomenological descriptive method seemed to me ideal for art", adding that he was "the last modern French writer I took seriously".

Political views

Some of her views have been characterized as conservative, but Paglia characterizes herself as a Clinton Democrat and libertarian. She opposes laws against prostitution, pornography, drugs, and abortion. Paglia criticized Clinton for not resigning after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which she says led to America being "blindsided by 9/11". In the 2000 US presidential campaign she voted for the Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, "[because] I detest the arrogant, corrupt superstructure of the Democratic Party, with which I remain stubbornly registered". In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Paglia supported Barack Obama.

Books

''Sexual Personae''

In ''Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990)'' Paglia argues that human nature has an inherently dangerous Dionysian aspect, especially in regard to human sexuality. Culture and civilization are created by men and represent an attempt to contain that force. Women are powerful, too, but as natural forces, and both marriage and religion are means to contain chaotic forces. A best seller, described by Terry Teachout in a ''New York Times'' book review as flawed, but "...every bit as intellectually stimulating as it is exasperating." Martha Duffy wrote that the book had a "neoconservative cultural message" which was well received, but rejected by many feminists. In a review of ''Sexual Personae'', feminist author Molly Ivins accused Paglia of historical inaccuracy, demagoguery of second-wave feminists, egocentrism, and writing in sweeping generalizations. In his review, Anthony Burgess described ''Sexual Personae'' as "a fine disturbing book..." that "...seeks to attack the reader's emotions as well as his / her prejudices."

Germaine Greer writes that Paglia's insights into Sappho are "vivid and extremely perceptive", but also "unfortunately inconsistent and largely incompatible with each other." Greer quotes Paglia writing that Sappho internalized rather than externalized her passion for the girls she fell in love with, and replies that, "No poet can be said to internalize passion." Greer also denies Paglia's claim that there is a "hostile distance between sexual personae" in Sappho's poetry, as well as her suggestion that the poet was "deprived of emotion", writing in response that "She is literally awash with emotion which comes from looking at the beloved for even the shortest time. Her emotional potency is on display, and implicitly compared with the nullity of the man who sits opposite her idol and hears her voice and laughter." Greer credits Paglia with making the point that "Sappho understood that there is no reciprocity in love, that harmony is not the human condition, and that the gods are not on our side", but believes that Paglia's "misreading" of the "Hymn to Aphrodite" conceals this from her.

''Sex, Art and American Culture''

''Sex, Art and American Culture: Essays'' (1992) is a collection of short pieces, many published previously as editorials or reviews, and some transcripts of interviews. It made the New York Times bestseller list for paperbacks.

''Break, Blow, Burn''

''Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-three of the World's Best Poems'' (2005) is a collection of 43 short selections of verse with an accompanying essay by Paglia. The collection is primarily oriented to those unfamiliar with the works, but does not pander to the new reader. Clive James notes that Paglia tends to focus on American works as it moves from Shakespeare forward through time, with Yeats, following Coleridge, as the last European discussed, but emphasized her range of sympathy and her ability to juxtapose and unite distinct art forms in her analysis. In his review, Christopher Nield remarks that Paglia has "a rare gift to capture a poem’s mood and scene in terse, spiky phrases of descriptive insight" and exhibits moments of brilliance, but also notes that some of her selections from recent writers fall flat. He also praises her pedagogical slant towards basic interpretation, suggesting that her approach might be what is required to reinvigorate studies in the humanities.

Works

''Sexual Personae: The Androgyne in Literature and Art'' (Dissertation: 1974)

''Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson'' (1990)

''Sex, Art and American Culture: Essays'' (1992)

''Vamps and Tramps: New Essays'' (1994) ISBN 0-679-75120-3

''The Birds (BFI Film Classics)'' (1998)

''Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-three of the World's Best Poems'' (2005) ISBN 0-375-42084-3

See also

Nouveau roman

References

External links

Salon Articles by Camille Paglia

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:American atheists Category:American feminist writers Category:American libertarians Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American political writers Category:American women writers Category:Binghamton University alumni Category:Bisexual writers Category:Criticism of feminism Category:American writers of Italian descent Category:LGBT feminists Category:LGBT parents Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:Media theorists Category:People from Syracuse, New York Category:University of the Arts (Philadelphia) faculty Category:Yale University alumni Category:American literary critics

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