Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Jean Seberg
birth name	Jean Dorothy Seberg
birth date	November 13, 1938
birth place	Marshalltown, Iowa, U.S.
death date	August 30, 1979
death place	Paris, France
spouse	François Moreuil (1958-60)Romain Gary (1962-70; 1 child)Dennis Charles Berry (1972-1979; separated; her death)
partner	Ahmed Hasni (1978-79)
years active	1957–79
occupation	Actress }}

Jean Dorothy Seberg (November 13, 1938August 30, 1979) was an American actress. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood and in France, including ''Breathless'' (1960), the musical ''Paint Your Wagon'' (1969) and the disaster film ''Airport'' (1970).

Early life

Jean Seberg was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, the daughter of Dorothy Arline (née Benson), a substitute teacher, and Edward Waldemar Seberg, a druggist. Her family was Lutheran and of Swedish, English, and German ancestry. Seberg studied at the University of Iowa.

Career

Seberg made her film debut in 1957 in the title role of ''Saint Joan'', from the Shaw play, after being chosen from 18,000 hopefuls by director Otto Preminger in a $150,000 talent search. Her name was entered by a neighbor. By the time she was cast, on October 21, 1956, her only acting experience had been a single season of summer stock performances. The film was paired with a great deal of publicity about which Seberg commented that she was "embarrassed by all the attention". Despite a big build-up, called in the press a "''Pygmalion'' experiment", both the film and Seberg received poor notices. On the failure, she later told the press: :"I have two memories of ''Saint Joan''. The first was being burned at the stake in the picture. The second was being burned at the stake by the critics. The latter hurt more. I was scared like a rabbit and it showed on the screen. It was not a good experience at all. I started where most actresses end up."

Preminger, though, had promised her a second chance, and he cast Seberg in his next film ''Bonjour Tristesse'' the following year, which was filmed in France. Regarding his decision, Preminger told the press: "It's quite true that, if I had chosen Audrey Hepburn instead of Jean Seberg, it would have been less of a risk, but I prefer to take the risk. [..] I have faith in her. Sure, she still has things to learn about acting, but so did Kim Novak when she started." Seberg again received atrocious reviews and the film nearly ended her career. Her next role was in the 1959 comedy, ''The Mouse That Roared'', starring Peter Sellers.

Deciding she had no luck in English-language films, Seberg moved to France, where she scored success as the free-love heroine of French New Wave films. Most notably, she appeared as Patricia in Jean-Luc Godard's ''Breathless'' (original French title: ''À bout de souffle''), in which she co-starred with Jean-Paul Belmondo. The film became an international success and critics praised Seberg's performance, François Truffaut even hailing her "the best actress in Europe." Despite her achievements in this genre, Seberg did not identify with her characters or the film plots, saying that she was "making films in France about people [she's] not really interested in." The critics did not agree with Seberg's absence of enthusiasm, and raved about her performances, inspiring Hollywood and Broadway to make her important offers.

In 1961, Seberg took on the lead role in her then husband François Moreuil's debut film, ''La recréation''. By that time, Seberg had been estranged from Moreuil, and she recollected that production was "pure hell" and that he "would scream at [her]." After moving back to the United States, she starred opposite Warren Beatty in ''Lilith'' (1964), which prompted the critics to acknowledge Seberg as a serious actress.

In 1969, she appeared in her first and only musical film, ''Paint Your Wagon'', based on Lerner and Loewe's stage musical, and co-starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood, but her singing voice was dubbed by Anita Gordon. Seberg also starred in the disaster film ''Airport'' (1970) opposite Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin.

At the peak of her career, Seberg suddenly stopped acting in Hollywood films. Reportedly, she was not pleased with the roles she had been offered, some of which, she noted, bordered on pornography. Conversely, she was not offered any great Hollywood roles, regardless of their size. Some have said she was blacklisted due to an infamous FBI smear campaign revolving around issues in her personal life. Others have dismissed that any blacklist occurred. Seberg was willing to work in a Paramount production whose screenplay she had been sent but the film was never made.

Seberg was François Truffaut's first choice for the central role of Julie in ''Day for Night'' but, after several fruitless attempts to contact her, Truffaut gave up and cast British actress Jacqueline Bisset instead. Her state of mind may have been responsible for this missed opportunity in 1973. Her last US film appearance was in the TV movie ''Mousey'' (1974). Seberg remained busy during the 1970s, but only in European films.

Seberg later appeared in ''Bianchi cavalli d'Agosto'' (White Horses of Summer) (1975), ''Le Grand Délire (Die Große Ekstase)'' (1975, with husband Dennis Berry) and ''Die Wildente'' (1976, based on Ibsen's ''The Wild Duck'').

Personal life

Seberg married François Moreuil, a French movie director who directed her in ''La récréation'', in 1958; they divorced in 1960. According to Seberg, the marriage was a "violent" one, and she complained that she "got married for all the wrong reasons." On living in France for a period of time, Seberg said in an interview: :"I'm enjoying it to the fullest extent. I've been tremendously lucky to have gone through this experience at an age where I can still learn. That doesn't mean that I will stay here. I'm in Paris because my work has been here. I'm not an expatriate. I will go where the work is. The French life has its drawbacks. One of them is the formality. The system seems to be based on saving the maximum of yourself for those nearest you. Perhaps that is better than the other extreme in Hollywood, where people give so much of themselves in public life that they have nothing left over for their families. Still, it is hard for an American to get used to. Often I will get excited over a luncheon table only to have the hostess say discreetly that coffee will be served in the other room. [..] I miss that casualness and friendliness of Americans, the kind that makes people smile. I also miss blue jeans, milk shakes, thick steaks and supermarkets."

In 1962, she married French novelist and diplomat Romain Gary, who was 24 years her senior. Their only child together, a son, was named Diego. During her marriage to Gary, Seberg lived in Paris, Greece, Southern France and Majorca, but remained an American citizen throughout.

During the late 1960s, Seberg used her high-profile image to privately voice support for the NAACP and supported Native American school groups such as the Mesquaki Bucks at the Tama settlement near her home town of Marshalltown, for whom she purchased $500 worth of basketball uniforms. She also supported the Black Panther Party.

After Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency, the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-ID) and usually referred to as the Church Committee, revealed that the FBI used illegally obtained information about Jean Seberg to concoct an article it planted in Newsweek magazine that defamed the actress, who was then seven months pregnant with her second child.

The FBI's goal was to "cause her embarrassment and serve to cheapen her image with the public".

Accordingly to some authors and researchers, the FBI's actions against Jean Seberg resulted in her suicide. Her death led fifteen months later to the suicide of her husband Romain Gary.

The story planted by the FBI in the ''Newsweek'' magazine was related to allegations that Seberg had an affair with Clint Eastwood while filming ''Paint Your Wagon''. and that in 1970, Seberg had an affair with a college student named Carlos Navarra, which resulted in the pregnancy of her daughter. It was when she was seven months pregnant that the FBI created the false story that the child she was carrying was not fathered by her husband Romain Gary, but by a member of the Black Panther Party, Raymond Hewitt. The story was also reported by gossip columnist Joyce Haber of the ''Los Angeles Times'', and ''Newsweek'' magazine. During her pregnancy, Seberg claimed that her husband Gary was the father. She gave birth to a girl named Nina on August 23, 1970 in Geneva, but the infant died two days later. She held an open casket funeral in her hometown to allow the curious to see the infant's color.

In 1972, she married film director Dennis Berry.

David Richards, author of the book ''Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story'', presents a different version of Jean's problems, describing them as having compounded after a relationship she had in 1979 with an Algerian named Ahmed Hasni. Richards affirms that Jean had "a form of marriage" to Ahmed Hasni through a ceremony on May 31, 1979 that had no legal force because she was still married to Berry. As per Richards, in July, Hasni persuaded her to sell her second apartment on the Rue du Bac, and he kept the proceeds (reportedly 11 million francs in cash), announcing that he would use the money to open a Barcelona restaurant. The couple departed for Spain but she was soon back in Paris alone, and went into hiding from Hasni, who she said had grievously abused her. Charles Champlin, film and arts critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'', wrote in 1979 a piece entitled "Jean Seberg: A Hollywood tragedy", where he affirms that in her later life, Seberg dealt with clinical depression, something he asserts was not revealed until after her death.

Death

In August 1979, she went missing and was found dead eleven days later in the back seat of her car, which was parked close to her Paris apartment in the 16th arrondissement. The police report stated that she had taken a massive overdose of barbiturates and alcohol (8g per liter). A suicide note ("Forgive me. I can no longer live with my nerves.") was found in her hand, and "probable suicide" was ultimately ruled the official cause of death by the French coroner. However, it is often questioned how she could have operated a car with that amount of alcohol in her body, and without the corrective lenses she needed for driving. One year later, her former husband Romain Gary committed suicide.

Seberg was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, France.

Legacy

In 1995, a documentary of her life was made by Mark Rappaport, titled ''From the Journals of Jean Seberg''. Mary Beth Hurt played Seberg in a voice-over. Appropriately, Hurt was also born in Marshalltown, Iowa, in 1948, attended the same high school as Seberg, and Seberg had been her babysitter. A musical, ''Jean Seberg'', by librettist Julian Barry, composer Marvin Hamlisch, and lyricist Christopher Adler, based on Seberg's life, was presented in 1983 at the National Theatre in London.

Mexican author and diplomat Carlos Fuentes mirrored their short-termed alleged love story in his 1994 novel ''Diana o La Cazadora Solitaria'' (''Diana, or The Solitary Hunter'').

The short 2000 film ''Je t'aime John Wayne'' is a tribute parody of ''Breathless'', with Camilla Rutherford playing Seberg's role.

In 2004, the French author Alain Absire published ''Jean S.'', a fictionalised biography. Seberg's son, Alexandre Diego Gary, brought a lawsuit unsuccessfully attempting to stop publication.

In 1991, Jodie Foster, a fan of her performance in ''Breathless'', purchased the film rights to the David Richards' biography about Seberg, ''Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story''. She was going to produce and star in the film. The project was cancelled two years later.

In 2011, filming began in New York City on a biopic tentatively titled, 'Jean', starring artist and heiress Daphne Guinness as Jean Seberg.

Filmography

''Saint Joan'' (1957)

''Bonjour tristesse'' (1958)

''The Mouse That Roared'' (1959)

''Breathless'' (''A bout de souffle'') (1959)

''Let No Man Write My Epitaph'' (1960)

''Les Grandes Personnes (Time Out for Love)'' (1961)

''La récréation (Playtime / Love Play)'' (1961, with husband François Moreuil)

''L'Amant de cinq jours'' (1961)

''Congo Vivo'' (1962)

''In the French Style'' (1962)

''Les Plus Belles Escroqueries du Monde (The World's Greatest Swindles) (1964)

''Lilith'' (1964)

''The Beautiful Swindlers'' (1964)

''Échappement libre'' (''Backfire'') (1964)

''Moment to Moment'' (1965)

''Un Milliard dans un Billard'' (Diamonds are Brittle) (1965)

''A Fine Madness'' (1966)

''La Ligne de démarcation'' or ''Line of Demarcation'' (1966)

''Estouffade à la Caraïbe (Gold Robbers)'' (1967)*Who's Got the Black Box (1967)

''The Road to Corinth'' (1968)

''Birds in Peru'' (1968, with husband Romain Gary)

''Pendulum'' (1969)

''Paint Your Wagon'' (1969)

''Ondata di Calore (Dead of Summer)'' (1970)

''Airport'' (1970)

''Macho Callahan'' (1970)

''Kill!'' (1972)

''Questa Specie d'Amore (This Kind of Love)'' (1972)

''L'attentat (The French Conspiracy)'' (1972)

''Camorra'' (1972)

''The Corruption of Chris Miller'' (1973)

''Mousey (or Cat & Mouse)'' (1974)

''Les Hautes solitudes'' (1974)

''Ballad for the Kid'' (1974) (also contributed to script, direction, editing)

''White Horses of Summer'' (1975)

''Le Grand Délire (Die Große Ekstase)'' (1975, with husband Dennis Berry)

''The Wild Duck'' (1976)

''La Légion Saute sur Kolwezi'' (1980 - scenes shot before her suicide were never shown)

Bibliography

References

External links

1958 Mike Wallace interview January 4, 1958

Category:1938 births Category:1979 deaths Category:Actors from Iowa Category:Actors who committed suicide Category:American expatriates in France Category:American film actors Category:American people of Swedish descent Category:Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery Category:Drug-related suicides in France Category:People from Marshall County, Iowa Category:University of Iowa alumni

ca:Jean Seberg da:Jean Seberg de:Jean Seberg es:Jean Seberg eo:Jean Seberg fr:Jean Seberg it:Jean Seberg he:ג'ין סיברג lb:Jean Seberg hu:Jean Seberg nl:Jean Seberg ja:ジーン・セバーグ no:Jean Seberg pl:Jean Seberg pt:Jean Seberg ro:Jean Seberg ru:Сиберг, Джин sh:Jean Seberg fi:Jean Seberg sv:Jean Seberg tr:Jean Seberg uk:Джин Сіберг

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Jean-Paul Belmondo
birth name	Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo
other names	Bebel
birth date	April 09, 1933
birth place	Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
spouse	Elodie Constantin (1953–1965)Natty Belmondo (2002–2008)
awards	Best Actor1989 ''Itinéraire d'un enfant gâté'' }}

Jean-Paul Belmondo (born 9 April 1933) is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.

Career

Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football. "''Did you box professionally very long?''" "Not very long. I was never a professional, just an amateur." "''Did you want to be one?''" "Yes, when I was 17, I dreamed of being a champion boxer. I trained at the Avia Club with Pierre Dupain, along with Maurice Auzel, who's now European welter-weight champion." "''Why did you quit?''" "Because you have to really love it and sacrifice for it, I had other ambitions and didn't want to sacrifice my life for it. To be a champion, you have to sacrifice everything. Since at the time I also loved acting, I thought it would be easier and less dangerous than boxing. It would hurt less. There might be blows to your morale, but in boxing you take blows to your body as well, so I chose just blows to my morale." – 1961

His breakthrough role was in Jean-Luc Godard's ''Breathless'' (1960), which made him a major figure in the French New Wave. Later he acted in Jean-Pierre Melville's philosophical movie ''Leon Morin, Priest'' (1961) and in Melville's Film Noir crime film ''The Fingerman'' (''Le Doulos'', 1963) and Godard again with ''Pierrot le fou'' (1965). With ''That Man From Rio'' (1965) he switched to commercial, mainstream productions, mainly comedies and action films but did appear in the title role of Alain Resnais' masterpiece Stavisky (1974), which some critics regard as Belmondo's finest performance. Until the mid-1980s, when he ceased to be one of France's biggest box-office stars, Belmondo's typical characters were either dashing adventurers or more cynical heroes. As he grew older, Belmondo preferred concentrating on his stage work, where he encountered success. He suffered a stroke in 2001 and had since been absent from the stage and the screen until 2009 when he appeared in ''Un homme et son chien'' (''A Man and His Dog'').

He was made ''Chevalier'' (Knight) of the Ordre national du Mérite, promoted ''Officier'' (Officer) in 1986 and promoted ''Commandeur'' (Commander) in 1994.

He was made ''Chevalier'' (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur, promoted ''Officier'' (Officer) in 1991 and promoted ''Commandeur'' (Commander) in 2007.

In 2010 the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards gave him a Career Achievement award. Belmondo attended the ceremony and made appearances in the Los Angeles area.

Personal life

Belmondo's father, Paul Belmondo, was a sculptor of Italian descent.

In 1953, Belmondo married Élodie Constantin, with whom he had three children: Patricia (1958), Florence (1960) and Paul (1963). Paul became a Formula One driver; his eldest daughter Patricia was killed in a fire in 1994. In 1966, due to a well-publicized affair between Belmondo and actress Ursula Andress, Belmondo and his wife divorced.

In 1989, Belmondo met Nathalie Tardivel who was 24 at the time, she and Belmondo married in 2002. On 13 August 2003, when he was 70, his fourth child Stella Eva Angelina was born. In 2008, Belmondo and Tardivel divorced.

Cultural references

Belmondo is saluted in a 1967 episode of the U.S. television sitcom ''Get Smart''. In the episode "The Spirit is Willing" a top agent of the sinister spy agency KAOS is named Paul John Mondebello, an obvious alteration of Belmondo's name. He is also mentioned in a song about "Masculinity" in the play ''La Cage Aux Folles'', and is mentioned in the Donovan song "Sunny South Kensington" on the ''Mellow Yellow'' album.

Filmography

''Molière'' (1956)

''On Foot, on Horse, and on Wheels'' (1957)

''Les Copains du dimanche'' (1958)

''Sois belle et tais-toi'' (1958)

''Sunday Encounter'' (1958)

''Les Tricheurs'' (1958)

''Ein Engel auf Erden'' (1959)

''Les trois mousquetaires'' (1959)

''À double tour'' (1959)

''Breathless'' (1960)

''The Big Risk'' (1960)

''Moderato Cantabile'' (1960)

''Love and the Frenchwoman'' (1960) (segment "L'Adultère")

''Trapped by Fear'' (1960)

''Charlotte et son Jules'' (1960)

''Rita'' (1960)

''Two Women'' (1960)

''The Lovemakers'' (1961)

''A Woman Is a Woman'' (1961)

''Leon Morin, Priest'' (1961)

''Famous Love Affairs'' (1961) (segment "Lauzun")

''Un nommi La Rocca'' (1961)

''Cartouche'' (1962)

''Un singe en hiver'' (1962)

''Le Doulos'' (1962)

''Beach Casanova'' (1962) (uncredited)

''The Shortest Day'' (1962)

''Banana Peel'' (1963)

''L'Ainé des Ferchaux'' (1963)

''Dragées au poivre'' (1963)

''Mare matto'' (1963)

''That Man from Rio'' (1964)

''Cent mille dollars au soleil'' (1964)

''Backfire'' (1964)

''La Chasse à l'homme'' (1964)

''Weekend at Dunkirk'' (1964)

''Crime on a Summer Morning'' (1965)

''Pierrot le fou'' (1965)

''Chinese Adventures in China'' (1965)

''Is Paris Burning?'' (1966)

''Tender Scoundrel'' (1966)

''The Thief of Paris'' (1967)

''Casino Royale'' (1967)

''Ho!'' (1968)

''The Brain'' (1969)

''Mississippi Mermaid'' (1969)

''Un homme qui me plaît'' (1969)

''Dieu a choisi Paris'' (1969)

''Borsalino'' (1970)

''The Burglars'' (1971)

''Les Mariés de l'an II'' (1971)

''Dr. Popaul'' (1972)

''La Scoumoune'' (1972)

''L'Héritier'' (1973)

''Le Magnifique'' (1973)

''Stavisky'' (1974)

''Peur sur la ville'' (1975)

''L'Incorrigible'' (1975)

''Hunter Will Get You'' (1976)

''Body of My Enemy'' (1976)

''L'Animal'' (1977)

''Cop or Hood'' (1979)

''Le Guignolo'' (1980)

''The Professional'' (1981)

''L'As des as'' (1982)

''The Outsider'' (1983)

''Les Morfalous'' (1984)

''Happy Easter'' (1984)

''Rufianes Y Tramposos'' (1984)

''Hold-Up'' (1985)

''The Loner'' (1987)

''Itinéraire d'un enfant gâté'' (1988)

''Stranger in the House'' (1992)

''Les Cent et Une Nuits de Simon Cinéma'' (1995)

''Les Misérables'' (1995)

''Désiré'' (1996)

''Half a Chance'' (1998)

''Peut-être'' (1999)

''Actors'' (2000)

''Amazon'' (2000)

''Down in the Boondocks'' (2008)

''A Man and His Dog'' (2009)

See also

Cinema of France

References

External links

Jean-Paul Belmondo’s fans forum (eng)

Belmondo Biography on newwavefilm.com

Jean-Paul Belmondo at filmsdefrance.com

Category:1933 births Category:Living people Category:People from Neuilly-sur-Seine Category:French film actors Category:French stage actors Category:French film producers Category:César Award winners Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre national du Mérite Category:Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur Category:French people of Italian descent Category:French people of Sicilian descent

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Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Saint Joan of Arc
Birth date	ca. 1412
Death date	30 May 1431 (aged 19)
Feast day	30 May
Parents	Jacques d' Arc and Isabelle de Vouthon
Venerated in	Roman Catholic ChurchAnglican Communion
Birth place	Domrémy, France
Death place	Rouen, France (then controlled by England)
Titles	Saint
Beatified date	18 April 1909
Beatified place	Notre Dame de Paris
Beatified by	Pope Pius X
Canonized date	16 May 1920
Canonized place	St. Peter's Basilica, Rome
Canonized by	Pope Benedict XV
Patronage	France }}

Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" (, ; ca. 1412 – 30 May 1431), is considered a national heroine of France and a Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was 19 years old. Twenty-five years after the execution, Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, pronounced her innocent and declared her a martyr. Joan of Arc was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. She is – along with St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, St. Louis IX, and St. Theresa of Lisieux – one of the patron saints of France.

Joan asserted that she had visions from God that instructed her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne.

Down to the present day, Joan of Arc has remained a significant figure in Western culture. From Napoleon onward, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory. Famous writers and composers who have created works about her include: Shakespeare (''Henry VI, Part 1''), Voltaire (''The Maid of Orleans'' poem), Schiller (''The Maid of Orleans'' play), Verdi (''Giovanna d'Arco''), Tchaikovsky (''The Maid of Orleans'' opera), Mark Twain (''Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc''), Arthur Honegger (''Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher''), Jean Anouilh (''L'Alouette''), Bertolt Brecht (''Saint Joan of the Stockyards''), George Bernard Shaw (''Saint Joan'') and Maxwell Anderson (''Joan of Lorraine''). Depictions of her continue in film, theatre, television, video games, music and performance.

Background

The historian Kelly DeVries describes the period preceding her appearance in the following terms: "If anything could have discouraged her, the state of France in 1429 should have." The Hundred Years' War had begun in 1337 as a succession dispute over the French throne with intermittent periods of relative peace. Nearly all the fighting had taken place in France, and the English army's use of ''chevauchée'' tactics (similar to scorched earth strategies) had devastated the economy. The French population had not recovered from the Black Death of the previous century and its merchants were isolated from foreign markets. At the outset of Jeanne d'Arc's appearance, the English had nearly achieved their goal of a dual monarchy under English control and the French army had not achieved any major victories for a generation. In DeVries's words, "The kingdom of France was not even a shadow of its thirteenth-century prototype."

The French king at the time of Joan's birth, Charles VI, suffered bouts of insanity and was often unable to rule. The king's brother Duke Louis of Orléans and the king's cousin John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, quarreled over the regency of France and the guardianship of the royal children. This dispute escalated to accusations of an extramarital affair with Queen Isabeau of Bavaria and the kidnappings of the royal children.. The matter climaxed with the assassination of the Duke of Orléans in 1407, on the orders of the Duke of Burgundy.

The factions which were loyal to these two men became known as the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. Henry V of England took advantage of this turmoil to invade France, winning a dramatic victory at Agincourt in 1415, and capturing many northern French towns. The future French king, Charles VII, assumed the title of Dauphin – the heir to the throne – at the age of fourteen, after all four of his older brothers died in succession. His first significant official act was to conclude a peace treaty with Burgundy in 1419. This ended in disaster when Armagnac partisans assassinated John the Fearless during a meeting under Charles's guarantee of protection. The new duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, blamed Charles for the murder and entered into an alliance with the English. Large sections of France were conquered.

In 1420, Queen Isabeau of Bavaria concluded the Treaty of Troyes, which granted the succession of the French throne to Henry V and his heirs instead of her son Charles. This agreement revived rumors about her alleged affair with the late duke of Orléans and raised fresh suspicions that the Dauphin was illegitimate rather than the son of the king. Henry V and Charles VI died within two months of each other in 1422, leaving an infant, Henry VI of England, the nominal monarch of both kingdoms. Henry V's brother, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, acted as regent.

By the beginning of 1429, nearly all of northern France and some parts of the southwest were under foreign control. The English controlled Paris while the Burgundians controlled Rheims, the latter city being the traditional site of French coronations. This was an important consideration since neither claimant to the throne of France had yet been officially crowned. The English had laid siege to Orléans, one of the few remaining loyal French cities and a strategic position along the Loire River which made it the last obstacle to an assault on the remainder of the French heartland. In the words of one modern historian, "On the fate of Orléans hung that of the entire kingdom." No one was optimistic that the city could long withstand the siege.

Life

Joan was born the daughter of Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée. in Domrémy, a village which was then in the duchy of Bar (later annexed to the province of Lorraine and renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle). Joan's parents owned about 50 acres (20 hectares) of land and her father supplemented his farming work with a minor position as a village official, collecting taxes and heading the local watch. They lived in an isolated patch of eastern France that remained loyal to the French crown despite being surrounded by Burgundian lands. Several local raids occurred during her childhood and on one occasion her village was burned.

Joan said she was about 19 at her trial, so she must have been born around the year 1412. She later testified that she experienced her first vision around 1424 at the age of 12 years, when she was out alone in a field and saw visions of figures she identified as Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret, who told her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Rheims for his coronation. She said she cried when they left, as they were so beautiful.

At the age of 16, she asked a kinsman, Durand Lassois, to bring her to nearby Vaucouleurs where she petitioned the garrison commander, Count Robert de Baudricourt, for permission to visit the royal French court at Chinon. Baudricourt's sarcastic response did not deter her. She returned the following January and gained support from two men of standing: Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy. Under their auspices, she gained a second meeting where she made a remarkable prediction about a military reversal near Orléans.

Rise

Robert de Baudricourt granted her an escort to visit Chinon after news from the front confirmed her prediction. She made the journey through hostile Burgundian territory in male disguise. Upon arriving at the Royal Court she impressed Charles VII during a private conference. During this time Charles's mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon was financing a relief expedition to Orléans. Joan asked for permission to travel with the army and wear the equipment of a knight. She depended on donated items for her armor, horse, sword, banner, and other items utilized by her entourage. Historian Stephen W. Richey explains her attraction to the Royal Court by pointing out that they may have viewed her as the only source of hope for a regime that was near collapse:

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Upon her arrival, Joan effectively turned the longstanding Anglo-French conflict into a religious war. But this course of action was not without its risks. Charles' advisers were worried that unless Joan's orthodoxy could be established beyond doubt – that she was not a heretic or a sorceress – Charles' enemies could easily make the claim that his kingdom was a gift from the Devil. To circumvent this possibility, the Dauphin ordered background inquiries and a theological examination at Poitiers to verify her morality. In April 1429, the commission of inquiry "declared her to be of irreproachable life, a good Christian, possessed of the virtues of humility, honesty and simplicity." The test for the truth of her claims would be the raising of the siege of Orléans.

She arrived at the siege of Orléans on 29 April 1429, but Jean d'Orléans, the acting head of the Orléans ducal family, initially excluded her from war councils and failed to inform her when the army engaged the enemy. This did not prevent her from being present at most councils and battles. The extent of her actual military leadership is a subject of historical debate. Traditional historians such as Édouard Perroy conclude that she was a standard bearer whose primary effect was on morale. This type of analysis usually relies on the condemnation trial testimony, where she stated that she preferred her standard to her sword. Recent scholarship that focuses on the nullification trial testimony asserts that the army's commanders esteemed her as a skilled tactician and a successful strategist. Stephen W. Richey's opinion is one example: ''"She proceeded to lead the army in an astounding series of victories that reversed the tide of the war."'' In either case, historians agree that the army enjoyed remarkable success during her brief career.

Leadership

Joan of Arc rejected the cautious strategy that had characterized French leadership during previous campaigns. During the five months of siege before her arrival, the defenders of Orléans had attempted only one aggressive move and that had ended in disaster. On 4 May the French attacked and captured the outlying fortress of Saint Loup, which she followed on 5 May with a march to a second fortress called Saint Jean le Blanc, which was found deserted. The next day she opposed Jean d'Orleans at a war council where she demanded another assault on the enemy. D'Orleans ordered the city gates locked to prevent another battle, but she summoned the townsmen and common soldiers and forced the mayor to unlock a gate. With the aid of only one captain she rode out and captured the fortress of Saint Augustins. That evening she learned she had been excluded from a war council where the leaders had decided to wait for reinforcements before acting again. Disregarding this decision, she insisted on attacking the main English stronghold called ''"les Tourelles"'' on 7 May. Contemporaries acknowledged her as the heroine of the engagement after she was wounded in the neck by an arrow but returned to lead the final charge.

The sudden victory at Orléans led to many proposals for further offensive action. The English expected an attempt to recapture Paris or an attack on Normandy. In the aftermath of the unexpected victory, Joan persuaded Charles VII to grant her co-command of the army with Duke John II of Alençon and gained royal permission for her plan to recapture nearby bridges along the Loire as a prelude to an advance on Rheims and the coronation of Charles VII. This was a bold proposal because Reims was roughly twice as far away as Paris and deep within enemy territory.

The army recovered Jargeau on 12 June, Meung-sur-Loire on 15 June, and Beaugency on 17 June. The Duke of Alençon agreed to all of Joan's decisions. Other commanders including Jean d'Orléans had been impressed with her performance at Orléans and became her supporters. Alençon credited her with saving his life at Jargeau, where she warned him of an imminent artillery attack. During the same battle she withstood a blow from a stone cannonball to her helmet as she climbed a scaling ladder. An expected English relief force arrived in the area on 18 June under the command of Sir John Fastolf. The battle at Patay might be compared to Agincourt in reverse. The French vanguard attacked before the English archers could finish defensive preparations. A rout ensued that decimated the main body of the English army and killed or captured most of its commanders. Fastolf escaped with a small band of soldiers and became the scapegoat for the humiliating English defeat. The French suffered minimal losses.

The French army set out for Reims from Gien-sur-Loire on 29 June and accepted the conditional surrender of the Burgundian-held city of Auxerre on 3 July. The other towns in their path returned to French allegiance without resistance. Troyes, the site of the treaty that had tried to disinherit Charles VII, capitulated after a bloodless four-day siege. The army was in short supply of food by the time it reached Troyes. But the army was in luck: a wandering friar named Brother Richard had been preaching about the end of the world at Troyes and had convinced local residents to plant beans, a crop with an early harvest. The hungry army arrived as the beans ripened.

Reims opened its gates to the army on 16 July. The coronation took place the following morning. Although Joan and the duke of Alençon urged a prompt march on Paris, the royal court preferred a negotiated truce with the duke of Burgundy. Duke Philip the Good broke the agreement, using it as a stalling tactic to reinforce the defense of Paris. The French army marched through towns near Paris during the interim and accepted more peaceful surrenders. The Duke of Bedford headed an English force and confronted the French army in a standoff on 15 August. The French assault at Paris ensued on 8 September. Despite a wound to the leg from a crossbow bolt, Joan continued directing the troops until the day's fighting ended. The following morning she received a royal order to withdraw. Most historians blame French Grand Chamberlain Georges de la Trémoille for the political blunders which followed the coronation. In October Joan took Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier and was granted nobility.

Capture

After a minor action at La-Charité-sur-Loire in November and December, Joan traveled to Compiègne the following April to help defend the city against an English and Burgundian siege. A skirmish on 23 May 1430 led to her capture, when her force attempted to attack the Burgundian's camp at Margny. When she ordered a retreat into the nearby fortifications of Compeigne after the advance of an additional force of 6,000 Burgundians, she assumed the place of honor as the last to leave the field. Burgundians surrounded the rear guard, and she was unhorsed by an archer and initially refused to surrender.

It was customary for a captive's family to ransom a prisoner of war. Joan was in an unusual circumstance. Many historians condemn King Charles VII for failing to intervene. She attempted several escapes, on one occasion jumping from her 70 foot (21 m) tower in Vermandois to the soft earth of a dry moat, after which she was moved to the Burgundian town of Arras. The English government eventually purchased her from Duke Philip of Burgundy. Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, an English partisan, assumed a prominent role in these negotiations and her later trial.

Trial

The trial for heresy was politically motivated. The Duke of Bedford claimed the throne of France on behalf of his nephew Henry VI. Joan had been responsible for the rival coronation, hence condemning her was an attempt to undermine her king's legitimacy. Legal proceedings commenced on 9 January 1431 at Rouen, the seat of the English occupation government. The procedure was irregular on a number of points.

To summarize some major problems: Under ecclesiastical law, Bishop Cauchon lacked jurisdiction over the case. He owed his appointment to his partisan support of the English government which financed the trial. Clerical notary Nicolas Bailly, commissioned to collect testimony against Joan, could find no adverse evidence. Without such evidence the court lacked grounds to initiate a trial. Opening a trial anyway, the court also violated ecclesiastical law in denying her right to a legal adviser. Upon the opening of the first public examination Joan complained that those present were all partisans against her and asked for "ecclesiastics of the French side" to be invited.

The trial record demonstrates her remarkable intellect. The transcript's most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety. "Asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she answered: 'If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.'" The question is a scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God's grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have convicted herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt. Notary Boisguillaume later testified that at the moment the court heard this reply, "Those who were interrogating her were stupefied." In the twentieth century George Bernard Shaw found this dialogue so compelling that sections of his play ''Saint Joan'' are literal translations of the trial record.

Several court functionaries later testified that significant portions of the transcript were altered in her disfavor. Many clerics served under compulsion, including the inquisitor, Jean LeMaitre, and a few even received death threats from the English. Under Inquisitorial guidelines, Joan should have been confined to an ecclesiastical prison under the supervision of female guards (i.e., nuns). Instead, the English kept her in a secular prison guarded by their own soldiers. Bishop Cauchon denied Joan's appeals to the Council of Basel and the pope, which should have stopped his proceeding.

The twelve articles of accusation that summarize the court's finding contradict the already doctored court record. The illiterate defendant signed an abjuration document she did not understand under threat of immediate execution. The court substituted a different abjuration in the official record.

Execution

Heresy was a capital crime only for a repeat offense. Joan agreed to wear feminine clothing when she abjured. A few days later she told a tribunal member that "a great English lord had entered her prison and tried to take her by force." She resumed male attire either as a defense against molestation or, in the testimony of Jean Massieu, because her dress had been stolen and she was left with nothing else to wear. In terms of doctrine, she had been safe to disguise herself as a page during her journey through enemy territory and she was safe to wear armor during battle. The ''Chronique de la Pucelle'' states that it deterred molestation while she was camped in the field. Clergy who later testified at the posthumous rehabilitation trial affirmed that she continued to wear male clothing in prison to deter molestation and rape. Preservation of chastity was another justifiable reason for cross-dressing: her apparel would have slowed an assailant, and men would be less likely to think of her as a sex object in any case. She referred the court to the Poitiers inquiry when questioned on the matter. The Poitiers record no longer survives but circumstances indicate the Poitiers clerics had approved her practice. In other words, she had a mission to do a man's work so it was fitting that she dress the part. She also kept her hair cut short through her military campaigns and while in prison. Her supporters, such as the theologian Jean Gerson, defended her hairstyle, as did Inquisitor Brehal later during the Rehabilitation trial. Nonetheless, at the trial in 1431 she was condemned and sentenced to die.

Eyewitnesses described the scene of the execution by burning on 30 May 1431. Tied to a tall pillar in the Vieux-Marché in Rouen, she asked two of the clergy, Fr Martin Ladvenu and Fr Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. A peasant also constructed a small cross which she put in the front of her dress. After she expired, the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so that no one could claim she had escaped alive, then burned the body twice more to reduce it to ashes and prevent any collection of relics. They cast her remains into the Seine. The executioner, Geoffroy Therage, later stated that he "...greatly feared to be damned."

Posthumous events

The Hundred Years' War continued for twenty-two years after her death. Charles VII succeeded in retaining legitimacy as the king of France in spite of a rival coronation held for Henry VI in December 1431 on the boy's tenth birthday. Before England could rebuild its military leadership and force of longbowmen, lost in 1429, the country lost its alliance with Burgundy at the Treaty of Arras in 1435. The Duke of Bedford died the same year and Henry VI became the youngest king of England to rule without a regent; his weak leadership was probably the most important factor in ending the conflict. Kelly DeVries argues that Joan of Arc's aggressive use of artillery and frontal assaults influenced French tactics for the rest of the war.

In 1452, during the posthumous investigation into her execution, the Church declared that a religious play in her honor at Orléans would allow attendees to gain an indulgence (remission of temporal punishment for sin) by making a pilgrimage to the event.

Retrial

A posthumous retrial opened after the war ended. Pope Callixtus III authorized this proceeding, also known as the "nullification trial", at the request of Inquisitor-General Jean Brehal and Joan's mother Isabelle Romée. The aim of the trial was to investigate whether the trial of condemnation and its verdict had been handled justly and according to canon law. Investigations started with an inquest by a priest, Guillaume Bouille. Brehal conducted an investigation in 1452. A formal appeal followed in November 1455. The appellate process involved clergy from throughout Europe and observed standard court procedure. A panel of theologians analyzed testimony from 115 witnesses. Brehal drew up his final summary in June 1456, which describes Joan as a martyr and implicated the late Pierre Cauchon with heresy for having convicted an innocent woman in pursuit of a secular vendetta. The technical reason for her execution had been a Biblical clothing law. The nullification trial reversed the conviction in part because the condemnation proceeding had failed to consider the doctrinal exceptions to that stricture. The appellate court declared her innocent on 7 July 1456.

Canonization

She became a symbol of the Catholic League during the 16th century. When Félix Dupanloup was made bishop of Orléans in 1849, he pronounced a fervid panegyric on Joan of Arc, which attracted attention in England as well as France and he led the efforts which culminated in Joan of Arc's beatification in 1909. Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan on 16 May 1920. As Saint Joan of Arc, she has become one of the most popular saints of the Roman Catholic Church.

Legacy

Joan of Arc became a semi-legendary figure for the four centuries after her death. The main sources of information about her were chronicles. Five original manuscripts of her condemnation trial surfaced in old archives during the 19th century. Soon historians also located the complete records of her rehabilitation trial, which contained sworn testimony from 115 witnesses, and the original French notes for the Latin condemnation trial transcript. Various contemporary letters also emerged, three of which carry the signature ''"Jehanne"'' in the unsteady hand of a person learning to write. This unusual wealth of primary source material is one reason DeVries declares, "No person of the Middle Ages, male or female, has been the subject of more study."

Joan of Arc came from an obscure village and rose to prominence when she was a teenager, and she did so as an uneducated peasant. The French and English kings had justified the ongoing war through competing interpretations of the thousand-year-old Salic law. The conflict had been an inheritance feud between monarchs. She gave meaning to appeals such as that of squire Jean de Metz when he asked, "Must the king be driven from the kingdom; and are we to be English?" In the words of Stephen Richey, "She turned what had been a dry dynastic squabble that left the common people unmoved except for their own suffering into a passionately popular war of national liberation." Richey also expresses the breadth of her subsequent appeal:

Joan of Arc was not a feminist. She operated within a religious tradition that believed an exceptional person from any level of society might receive a divine calling. She expelled women from the French army and may have struck one stubborn camp follower with the flat of a sword. Nonetheless, some of her most significant aid came from women. King Charles VII's mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, confirmed Joan's virginity and financed her departure to Orléans. Joan of Luxembourg, aunt to the count of Luxembourg who held custody of her after Compiègne, alleviated her conditions of captivity and may have delayed her sale to the English. Finally, Anne of Burgundy, the duchess of Bedford and wife to the regent of England, declared Joan a virgin during pretrial inquiries. For technical reasons this prevented the court from charging her with witchcraft. Ultimately this provided part of the basis for her vindication and sainthood. From Christine de Pizan to the present, women have looked to her as a positive example of a brave and active female.

Joan of Arc has been a political symbol in France since the time of Napoleon. Liberals emphasised her humble origins. Early conservatives stressed her support of the monarchy. Later conservatives recalled her nationalism. During World War II, both the Vichy Regime and the French Resistance used her image: Vichy propaganda remembered her campaign against the English with posters that showed British warplanes bombing Rouen and the ominous caption: ''"They Always Return to the Scene of Their Crimes."'' The resistance emphasised her fight against foreign occupation and her origins in the province of Lorraine, which had fallen under Nazi control.

Three separate vessels of the French Navy have been named after her, including a helicopter carrier which was retired from active service on 7 June 2010. At present the controversial French far-right political party ''Front National'' holds rallies at her statues, reproduces her likeness in party publications, and uses a tricolor flame partly symbolic of her martyrdom as its emblem. This party's opponents sometimes satirize its appropriation of her image. The French civic holiday in her honour is the second Sunday of May.

Traditionalist Catholics, in France and elsewhere, also use her as a symbol of inspiration, often comparing the 1988 excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (founder of the Society of St. Pius X and a dissident against the Vatican II reforms), to her excommunication.

Philippe-Alexandre Le Brun de Charmettes is the first historian who wrote Joan of Arc's complete history in 1817, in an attempt to restore her family's reputation from Joan's status as a relapsed heretic. His interest in Joan came at a time when France was still struggling to define its new identity after the Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. The national ''ethos'' was in search of non-controversial heroes. A staunch supporter of King and country, Joan of Arc was an acceptable symbol to the monarchists. As a patriot and the daughter of commoners, she was seen as one prototype of the low-born volunteers (the ''soldats de l'an II'') who had victoriously fought for revolutionary France in 1802 and as such could be claimed by the Republicans. As a religious martyr, she was also popular in the powerful Catholic community. De Charmette's ''Orléanide'', today largely forgotten, was another attempt to magnify the national ''ethos'' as writers like Virgil (the Aeneid), or Camoens (the Lusiad) had done for Rome and Portugal.

Visions

Joan of Arc's religious visions have remained an ongoing topic of interest. The consensus among scholars is that her faith was sincere. She identified Saint Margaret, Saint Catherine, and Saint Michael as the source of her revelations, although there is some ambiguity as to which of several identically named saints she intended. Some Catholics regard her visions as divine inspiration.

Analysis of her visions is problematic since the main source of information on this topic is the condemnation trial transcript in which she defied customary courtroom procedure about a witness's oath and specifically refused to answer every question about her visions. She complained that a standard witness oath would conflict with an oath she had previously sworn to maintain confidentiality about meetings with her king. It remains unknown to what extent the surviving record may represent the fabrications of corrupt court officials or her own possible fabrications to protect state secrets. Some historians sidestep speculation about the visions by asserting that her belief in her calling is more relevant than questions about the visions' ultimate origin.

Documents from her own era and historians prior to the twentieth century generally assume that she was both healthy and sane.

A number of more recent scholars attempted to explain her visions in psychiatric or neurological terms. Potential diagnoses have included epilepsy, migraine, tuberculosis, and schizophrenia. None of the putative diagnoses have gained consensus support, possibly due to the limited amount of information available about Joan's life. Two experts who analyse a temporal lobe tuberculoma hypothesis in the medical journal ''Neuropsychobiology'' express their misgivings this way:

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In response to another such theory alleging that she suffered from bovine tuberculosis as a result of drinking unpasteurized milk, historian Régine Pernoud wrote that if drinking unpasteurized milk could produce such potential benefits for the nation, then the French government should stop mandating the pasteurization of milk.

The fact that Joan of Arc gained favor in the court of King Charles VII has been suggested as evidence against mental illness hypotheses. The argument suggests that Charles VII would have been able to recognize "madness" because his own father, Charles VI, suffered from it. Charles VI was popularly known as "Charles the Mad", and much of the political and military decline that France had suffered during his reign could be attributed to the power vacuum that his episodes of insanity had produced. The previous king had believed he was made of glass, a delusion no courtier had mistaken for a religious awakening. Fears that King Charles VII would manifest the same insanity may have factored into the attempt to disinherit him at Troyes. This stigma was so persistent that contemporaries of the next generation would attribute to inherited madness the breakdown that England's King Henry VI was to suffer in 1453: Henry VI was nephew to Charles VII and grandson to Charles VI. Upon Joan's arrival at Chinon the royal counselor Jacques Gélu cautioned,

The court of Charles VII was shrewd and skeptical on the subject of mental health.

Also potentially relevant is the fact that she displayed none of the objective symptoms that can accompany the mental illnesses which have been suggested, such as Schizophrenia. She remained astute to the end of her life and the rehabilitation trial testimony frequently marvels at her astuteness:

Her subtle replies under interrogation even forced the court to stop holding public sessions.

Although mental illness does not necessarily include severe cognitive impairment, nonetheless the various psychiatric conditions which have been specifically suggested to explain Joan's experiences would include certain detrimental symptoms which are among the diagnostic criteria. For example, in the case of Schizophrenia the American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" lists detrimental and noticeable side effects such as disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, affective flattening, alogia, and avolition, among other effects. As noted farther above, these symptoms do not appear to have been present in Joan's case.

Some psychiatrists have also urged that a distinction should be made between different types of experiences. Ralph Hoffman, professor of psychology at Yale University, argues that visionary and creative states including ''"hearing voices"'' are not necessarily signs of mental illness. He lists Joan of Arc's case as a possible example of what Hoffman describes as an "inspired voice", without elaborating on the term.

Alleged relics disproven

In 1867, a jar was found in a Paris pharmacy with the inscription "Remains found under the stake of Joan of Arc, virgin of Orleans". They consisted of a charred human rib, carbonized wood, a piece of linen and a cat femur — explained as the practice of throwing black cats onto the pyre of witches. They are now in the Museum of Art and History in Chinon museum. In 2006, Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist at Raymond Poincaré Hospital (Garches) was authorized to study the relics. Carbon-14 tests and spectrometry were performed, and the results show that the remains come from an Egyptian mummy from the sixth to the third century BC. The charred appearance comes from the embalming substances, not from combustion. Large amounts of pine pollen were also found, consistent with the presence of resin used in mummification and some unburned linen was found to be similar to that used to wrap mummies. The famous perfumers Guerlain and Jean Patou said that they could smell vanilla in the remains, also consistent with mummification. Apparently the mummy was part of the ingredients of medieval pharmacopoeia and it was relabeled in a time of French nationalism.

Revisionist theories

The accuracy of the standard accounts of the life of Joan of Arc has been questioned by revisionist authors. These issues are covered in a separate Wikipedia article, Alternative historical interpretations of Joan of Arc.

See also

Joanna of Flanders

Charles VII of France

Henry V of England

Charles VI of France

Yolande of Aragon

Marie of Anjou

Maid of Lorraine prophecies

John the Fearless

Philip the Good

Gilles de Rais

Jean d'Aulon

Françoise de Cezelli

List of women warriors in folklore

The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, a book describing 15 military engagements which, in the opinion of the author, had a significant impact on world history. The Siege of Orléans is included.

Joan of Arc, a sculpture in Washington, D.C.

Footnotes

References

Further reading

;Biographies ;Related history

External links

1919 version of the Catholic Encyclopedia: ''Blessed Joan of Arc'' (written before her canonization)

Archive of Joan of Arc materials

Médailles Jeanne d’Arc, Exonumia: Medallions devoted to Joan of Arc

Garden of Praise – Joan of Arc

Catholic Online Saints

Britannica article on Joan of Arc

Site of the Joan of Arc Museum in Rouen, France.

A Stirring Icon of Girl Power: A Father and a Daughter Follow the Trail of Joan of Arc Article in the Washington Post by Steve Hendrix, 12 Oct. 2008.

Joan of Arc's Loire Valley Battles on Google Maps

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Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Robert Rossen
Birth date	March 16, 1908
Birth place	New York City, New York, USA
Death date	February 18, 1966
Death place	New York City, New York, USA
Years active	1932–1963
Spouse	Sue Siegel Rossen }}

Robert Rossen (March 16, 1908 – February 18, 1966) was an American screenwriter, film director, and producer whose film career spanned almost three decades. His 1949 film ''All the King's Men'' won Oscars for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, while Rossen was nominated for an Oscar as Best Director. He won the Golden Globe for Best Director and the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture. In 1961 he made ''The Hustler'', which was nominated for nine Oscars and won two. Rossen was nominated as Best Director and with Sidney Carroll for Best Adapted Screenplay but did not win either award.

After directing and writing for the stage in New York, Rossen moved to Hollywood in 1937. There he worked as a screenwriter for Warner Bros. until 1941, and then interrupted his career to serve until 1944 as the chairman of the Hollywood Writers Mobilization Against the War, a body to organize writers for the effort in World War II. In 1945 he joined a picket line against Warner Bros., making an enemy of Jack Warner. After making one film for Hal Wallis's new-formed production company, Rossen made one for Columbia Pictures, another for Wallis and most of his later films for his own companies, usually in collaboration with Columbia.

Rossen was a member of the American Communist Party from 1937 to about 1947, and believed the Party was "dedicated to social causes of the sort that we as poor Jews from New York were interested in." However, he finally ended all relations with the Party in 1949. Rossen was twice called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), in 1951 and in 1953. He exercised his Fifth Amendment rights at his first appearance, refusing to state whether he had ever been a Communist. As a result he was unofficially blacklisted by the Hollywood studio bosses, and he was unable to renew his passport. At his second appearance he named 57 people as current or former Communists and was removed from the unofficial blacklist.

After this, he had to produce his next film, ''Mambo'', in Italy in 1954 to repair his finances. While ''The Hustler'' in 1961 was a great success, conflict with the star of ''Lilith'' so disillusioned Rossen that he made no more films during the last three years of his life.

Rossen's films for Warner generally described the conditions of working people, the portrayal of gangsters and racketeers, and opposition to fascism. He wrote that ambition and the desire for success were common themes in his work. His films often featured strong female characters. All Rossen's playscripts were adaptions except three which were based on real events. While head of production at Warner, Wallis considered that some of his best films were written by Rossen.

Biography

Early life and career

Robert Rossen, originally known as Robert Rosen, was born on March 16, 1908, and raised on the Lower East Side of New York City. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants and his father was a rabbi. As a youth Rossen attended New York University, hustled pool and fought some prizefights.

He started his theatrical career as a director and playwright in stock and off-Broadway productions, mainly in the social and radical theaters that flourished in New York in the early and mid-1930s. In 1932 Rossen directed John Wexley's ''Steel'', about labor agitation, and Richard Maibaum's ''The Tree'', about a lynching. A year later Rossen directed ''Birthright'', in which Maibaum attacked Nazism. In 1935 Rossen wrote and directed ''The Body Beautiful'', a comedy about a naive burlesque dancer. Although the play closed after four performances, Warner Bros. director Mervyn LeRoy was so impressed that in 1936 he signed Rossen to a personal screenwriting contract.

In 1936 Rossen married. A daughter, Carol Eve Rossen, was born in August 1937 and his son, Stephen Rossen, in 1940.

Work in Hollywood

Rossen was a member of the American Communist Party from 1937 to 1947. Later he explained to his son Stephen that he believed the Party was "dedicated to social causes of the sort that we as poor Jews from New York were interested in."

For his first credit in Hollywood, in 1937 Rossen co-wrote with Abem Finkel a script based on the prosecution of crime lord Lucky Luciano and eventually titled ''Marked Woman''. Although some of Warner Bros.' management saw Rossen as an unknown quantity, the result won praise from both Jack Warner and the ''Daily Worker''. Rossen's first solo script was for ''They Won't Forget'' (1937), a fictionalized account of the lynching of Leo Frank, featuring Lana Turner in her debut performance.

''Dust Be My Destiny'', co-written in 1939 by Rossen, is the story of a fugitive from justice who is eventually acquitted with help from an attorney and a journalist, the latter arguing that "a million boys all over the country" were in a similar plight. Warner Bros. then ordered producer Lou Edelman to cut the script, adding that "This is the story of two people – not a group. It is an individual problem – not a national one."

''The Sea Wolf'', released in 1941, was based on Jack London's novel. Although the film had a strong cast and production, Rossen's re-draft of the script may be the greatest influence on the film. While the character of Captain Larsen remained both victim and oppressed in a capitalist hierarchy, he also became a symbol of fascism. Rossen also split the novel's idealist hero into an intellectual bosun and a rebellious seaman. Warner Bros. cut many political points during production. After the Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Screen Writers Guild set up on December 8, 1941, the Hollywood Writers Mobilization Against the War, a body to organize writers for the war effort. Rossen served as the body's chairman until 1944 and advocated the opening of a second front to support West European resistance again the Nazis. He was now seen as a patriot rather than a radical, and his earnings were much greater than in 1937. However, his work for Hollywood Writers Mobilization and for the Communist Party forced him to abandon some partly developed film projects, including ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'', which John Huston eventually directed in 1948.

In 1945 Rossen joined a picket line against Warner Bros., making an enemy of Jack Warner. Rossen signed a contract with an independent production company formed by Hal Wallis, who had previously been Warner Bros.' head of production. However Rossen wrote only two full scripts for this company, ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' in 1946 and ''Desert Fury'' in 1947. In ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' Rossen used a short story by John Patrick to introduce the main plot, which was set fifteen years later and which Rossen wrote himself. The relationship between Rossen and Wallis broke down when Rossen received offers from other production companies.

Dick Powell had been a crooner but was making a new career as a dramatic actor. When Columbia Pictures agreed to make ''Johnny O'Clock'' for him in 1947, Powell successfully campaigned for Rossen to direct, and this became Rossen's debut in directing. As this crime melodrama proved a modest success, Roberts Productions signed Rossen to direct Abraham Polonsky's script of ''Body and Soul'', described by Bob Thomas as "possibly the best prizefight film ever made." Rossen preferred an ending in which the hero wins a boxing match and then is killed by a gangster, but Polonsky insisted on his own ending, in which the hero escapes into obscurity before the fight. Following the success of ''Body and Soul'', Rossen formed his own company and signed with Columbia Pictures a contract that gave him wide autonomy over every second film that he made at the studio.

''All the King's Men'' (1949) was based on the novel of the same name by Robert Penn Warren, which in turn was based on the career of the Louisiana politician Huey Long. Rossen introduced a new concept, that the defenders of the ordinary people can in turn become the new exploiters. As a requirement for his participation in the film, Rossen had to write to Columbia's Harry Cohn saying that he was no longer a Communist Party member. Cohn's critiques of draft of Rossen's script including scrapping a framing structure that was difficult for audiences to follow, and several improvements in the relationships and motivations of characters. A meeting of the Communist Party in Los Angeles severely criticized the film, and Rossen finally ended all relations with the Party. ''All the King's Men'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Broderick Crawford won the award for Best Actor and Mercedes McCambridge was honored as Best Supporting Actress. Rossen was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director but lost to Joseph L. Mankiewicz for ''A Letter to Three Wives''. Rossen won a Golden Globe for Best Director and the film won the Golden Globe for Best Picture.

''The Brave Bulls'' was directed in 1950 and released in 1951. This was Rossen's last work before studios blacklisted him. The New York Times critic called this "the best film on bull-fighting yet."

Examinations by HUAC

After the end of World War II in 1945, the USA became afraid of the spread of Communism. In 1946, the Republicans gained an overwhelming majority in the Congressional elections. The Communist victory of China in 1949 and the start of the Korean War in 1950 reinforced the fear and extended it to Hollywood, where the film companies also opposed attempts to organize an industry-wide trade union. Conservative and right-wing groups fought to undo many of the liberal measures of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidencies.

During hearings in 1947, Jack Warner included Rossen among many leftist writers whom Warner accused of incorporating Communist propaganda in scripts, and whom he claimed to have fired. Rossen was one of 19 "unfriendly witnesses" subpoenaed in October 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during the second Red Scare but was one of eight not called to testify.

In 1951, however, Rossen was named as a Communist by several HUAC witnesses and he appeared before HUAC for the first time in June of that year. He exercised his rights under the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination, taking what came to be known as the "augmented Fifth". He testified that he was not a member of the Communist Party and that he disagreed with the aims of the party but when asked to state whether he had ever been a member of the party, Rossen refused to answer. He was placed on the unofficial blacklist by the Hollywood studios, and Columbia broke its production contract with him.

Rossen could not renew his passport, and in May 1953, Rossen again appeared before the committee and named 57 people as Communists. He explained to the committee why he chose to testify: "I don't think, after two years of thinking, that any one individual can indulge himself in the luxury of personal morality or pit it against what I feel today very strongly is the security and safety of this nation." Stephen Rossen later shed light on his father's decision:

"It killed him not to work. He was torn between his desire to work and his desire not to talk, and he didn't know what to do. What I think he wanted to know was, what would I think of him if he talked? He didn't say it in that way, though. Then he explained to me the politics of it—how the studios were in on it, and there was never any chance of his working. He was under pressure, he was sick, his diabetes was bad, and he was drinking. By this time I understood that he had refused to talk before and had done his time, from my point of view. What could any kid say at that point? You say, 'I love you and I'm behind you.' "

Return to filmmaking

From 1952 to 1953, Rossen wrote ''Mambo'', trying to repair his finances after almost two years without work following the 1951 HUAC hearing. He had to produce the film in Italy, and it was premiered in Italy in 1954 and the USA in 1955. Rossen later said "''Mambo'' was to be for fun only," but he "took it seriously, and it didn't come off." Contemporary critics dismissed the film. However, in 2001 Dorothea Fischer-Hornung concluded that the film achieved more than Rossen and contemporary critics realised: the female lead resolves her own conflicts by devoting herself to dance; Katherine Dunham's choreography highlights this process; and innovative cinematography intensifies the dance scenes.

Rossen hoped ''Alexander the Great'' (1956) would be a blockbuster, but the majority of the reviews criticized the film for failing to keep the audience's interest. However, the review from ''The New York Times'' wrote that "its moments of boredom are rare ... an overlong but thoughtful and spectacular entertainment."

In 1961, Rossen co-wrote, produced and directed ''The Hustler''. Drawing upon his own experiences as a pool hustler, Rossen teamed with Sidney Carroll to adapt the novel of the same name for the screen. ''The Hustler'' was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won two. Rossen was nominated as Best Director and with Carroll for Best Adapted Screenplay but did not win either award. He was named Best Director by the New York Film Critics Circle and shared with Carroll the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Drama. ''The Hustler'' was an enormous popular success and is credited with sparking a resurgence in the popularity of pool in the United States, which had been on the decline for decades.

Rossen was already ill when he started on his final film, ''Lilith'' (1964), and it was poorly received in the USA. After it Rossen lost interest in directing, reportedly because of conflicts with the film's star, Warren Beatty. The filmmaker said, "It isn't worth that kind of grief. I won't take it any more. I have nothing to say on the screen right now. Even if I never make another picture, I've got ''The Hustler'' on my record. I'm content to let that one stand for me." However, at the time of his death Rossen was planning ''Cocoa Beach'', a script he conceived in 1962, showing the hopes and struggles of transients in a local community and contrasting this with nearby Cape Canaveral, which Neve described as a "symbol of America’s imperial reach".

Later life

Rossen married Sue Siegal in 1954. He died in New York City at age 57 on February 18, 1966, following a series of illnesses and is interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. He was survived by his wife Sue, son Stephen and daughters Carol and Ellen.

Reception

Rossen was one of the directors who developed film gris (French for "grey film"). In his films for Warner Brothers' "Popular Front" period between 1937 and 1944, consistent themes were the conditions of working people, the portrayal of gangsters and racketeers, and opposition to fascism. After ''Dust Be My Destiny'', written by Rossen and released in 1939, Frank Nugent, who regularly reviewed for ''The New York Times'', complained about Warner Brothers' long line of melodramas about boys from poor neighbourhoods. Unlike filmmakers such as John Ford and Howard Hawks, Rossen was willing to explain his aims as a director: "The element common to many of my films is the desire for success, ambition, which is an important element in American life. It is an important element, and has become increasingly more important in what is known as Western Civilization." Polonsky commented that "Rossen's talent is force applied everywhere without let-up." Neve acknowledged that social concerns were central in most of Rossen's works, but commented that ''Lilith'' was different from Rossen's earlier films as it emphasized mood rather than narrative and examined through pictures and silences the nature of maladjustment and madness.

Farber noted the strong female characters of the 1930s and 1940s, and laments their replacing by all-male relationships from the 1950s onwards. For the earlier pattern Farber cited Rossen's 1946 script ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'', which was over melodramatic but portrayed a woman consumed by power, money and success. ''Lilith'' created one of the few strong women in the 1960s. Rossen generally destroyed the main character.

All Rossen's playscripts were adaptions except ''Marked Woman'', ''Racket Buster'' and ''Alexander the Great'', which were based on real events. Before he was blacklisted in 1951, only two of Rossen's adaptions were of serious novels, and Rossen's early drafts of the script for ''All the King's Men'' received serious criticisms within Columbia.

While head of production at Warner, Hal Wallis considered that some of his best films – including ''The Roaring Twenties'', ''Marked Woman'' and ''The Sea Wolf'' – were written by Rossen. Wallis was very pleased with Rossen's script in 1946 for ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'', which was produced by Wallis own company. However, Rossen turned down Wallis's next two films. Both Wallis as producer and Rossen as writer-director wanted to operate as independents, rather than under the control of a studio.

''All the King's Men'' was one of the last of the social "message" films, as they were eclipsed as America turned conservative. Thomas Schatz' regarded ''All the King's Men'' as possibly the best of the genre, as it examined alcoholism, adultery, political corruption and the influence of journalism. In 2001 the United States National Film Registry preserved the film as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Rossen produced, directed and co-wrote ''The Hustler'' in 1961. At the time ''Variety'' praised the cast, complained about the "sordid aspects" of the story and felt the film was far too long. ''The New Republic'' praised the cast and Rossen's "sure, economical" direction, but thought the script "strains hard to give an air of menace and criminality." The film won two Academy Awards and was nominated for another seven, was nominated in four of the Golden Globes' categories, and gained many other awards and nominations. In 1997 the National Film Registry preserved ''The Hustler'' as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In 2002 Roger Ebert described the film as one "where scenes have such psychic weight that they grow in our memories" and praised Rossen's decision to develop all four main characters, and James Berardinelli listed the film in his All Time Top 100 for similar reasons. Ebert also praised Rossen's decision to shoot the film in the "stygian gloom of the billiard parlor" created by black-and-white. Other accolades appeared in the 2000s.

In 1966 Stephen Farber used "Gothic" to described ''Lilith'' and a few other American films of the early 1960s based on psychological horror, and regarded ''Lilith'''s female protagonist as a demonic temptress. Nina Leibman regarded ''Lilith'' as the most extreme of the American film industry's applications, or rather misapplications, of psychoanalytic concepts, as the patient is already psychotic and has a track record of previous conquests. In ''The New Biographical Dictionary of Film'' David Thomson describes ''Lilith'' as "an oddity, the only one of [Rossen's] films that seems passionate, mysterious and truly personal. The other films will look increasingly dated and self-contained, but ''Lilith'' may grow."

Works

Play ''The Tree'' ''Birthright'' ''The Body Beautiful'' ''Marked Woman'' ''They Won't Forget'' ''Racket Busters'' ''Dust Be My Destiny'' ''The Roaring Twenties'' ''A Child Is Born'' ''The Sea Wolf (1941 film) ''Out of the Fog (film) ''Blues in the Night (1941 film) ''A Walk in the Sun (1945 film) ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' ''Johnny O'Clock'' ''Desert Fury'' ''Body and Soul (1947 film) ''The Undercover Man'' ''All the King's Men (1949 film) ''The Brave Bulls (film) ''Mambo (film) ''Alexander the Great (1956 film) ''Island in the Sun (film) ''They Came to Cordura'' ''The Cool World (play) ''The Hustler (film) Centaur Enterprises

Release !! Title !! Type !! Production company !! Writer !! Director !! Producer
1932	''Steel''	|	–	–	Y	–
1932	|	Play	–	–	Y	–
1933	|	Play	–	–	Y	–
1935	|	Play	–	Y	Y	–
1937 – April	|	Film	Warner Bros.	Y co-wrote	n	n
1937 – October	|	Film	Warner Bros.	Y	n	n
1938	|	Film	Warner Bros.	Y	n	n
1939 – September	|	Film	Warner Bros.	Y co-wrote	n	n
1939 – October	|	Film	Warner Bros.	Y co-wrote	n	n
1940	|	Film	Warner Bros.	Y	n	n
1941 – March	The Sea Wolf'' ||	Film	Warner Bros.	Y co-wrote	n	n
1941 – June	Out of the Fog'' ||	Film	Warner Bros.	Y	n	n
1941 – Nov	Blues in the Night'' ||	Film	Warner Bros.	Y co-wrote	n	n
1945 – December	A Walk in the Sun'' ||	Film	Lewis Milestone Productions	Y	n	n
1946 – July	|	Film	Hal Wallis Productions	Y	n	n
1947 – March	|	Film	J. E. M. Productions	Y	Y	n
1947 – August	|	Film	Hal Wallis Productions	Y	n	n
1947 – November	Body and Soul'' ||	Film	Enterprise Studios	n	Y	n
1949 – April	|	Film	Robert Rossen	n	n	Y
1949 – November	All the King's Men'' ||	Film	Columbia Pictures Corporation	Y	Y	Y
1951	The Brave Bulls'' ||	Film	Rossen Enterprises	n	Y	Y
1954	Mambo'' ||	Film	Produzione Ponti-De Laurentiis	Y	Y	n
1956	Alexander the Great'' ||	Film	Rossen Films, S.A. C.B. Films	Y	Y	Y
1957	Island in the Sun'' ||	Film	Darryl F. Zanuck Productions	n	Y	n
1959	|	Film	Goetz Pictures, Inc.; Baroda Productions, Inc.	Y	Y	n
1960	The Cool World'' ||	Play	–	Y co-wrote	n	n
1961	The Hustler'' ||	Film	Rossen Enterprises Company	Y co-wrote with Sidney Carroll	Y	Y
1964	Lilith (film)>Lilith''		Film	|	Y	Y	Y

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

Robert Rossen at the Internet Broadway Database

Category:American film producers Category:American film directors Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:Hollywood blacklist Category:Members of the Communist Party USA Category:Best Director Golden Globe winners Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners Category:People from New York City Category:Burials at Westchester Hills Cemetery Category:1908 births Category:1966 deaths Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent

ca:Robert Rossen da:Robert Rossen de:Robert Rossen es:Robert Rossen fr:Robert Rossen it:Robert Rossen he:רוברט רוסן nl:Robert Rossen ja:ロバート・ロッセン pl:Robert Rossen pt:Robert Rossen ru:Россен, Роберт tr:Robert Rossen

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
birth name	Henry Warren Beaty
birth date	March 30, 1937
birth place	Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
spouse	Annette Bening (1992–present)
occupation	Actor, director, producer, screenwriter
years active	1957–present }}

Warren Beatty ( ; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award. He is married to actress Annette Bening.

Early life and education

Beatty was born Henry Warren Beaty in Richmond, Virginia's Bellevue neighborhood. His mother, Kathlyn Corinne (née MacLean), was a Nova Scotia–born drama teacher, and his father, Ira Owens Beaty, was a professor of psychology, a public school administrator, and a real estate agent. Beatty's grandparents were also teachers. The family was Baptist. His father moved the family from Richmond to Norfolk, Virginia, and then to Arlington, Virginia, where he became a middle school principal. The family also lived in Waverly, Virginia, in the 1930s. Beatty's sister, three years his senior, is the multi-award winning actress and writer Shirley MacLaine.

Beatty was a star football player at Washington-Lee High School, in Arlington, Virginia. Encouraged to act by the success of his sister, who had recently established herself as a Hollywood star, he decided to work as a stagehand at the National Theater in Washington, D.C., during the summer prior to his senior year. This enabled him to establish contact with a few famous actors. Upon graduation from high school, he turned down 10 football scholarships to enroll in drama school.

He studied acting and directing at the Northwestern University school of drama. While at Northwestern, he appeared in the annual Dolphin show. He is a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. He dropped out after his freshman year to enroll in the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in New York City. By the age of twenty-two, Beatty had appeared in about forty Off Broadway productions. He garnered a best actor Tony Award nomination in 1960 for his performance in William Inge's drama ''A Loss of Roses''. It was to be his only appearance on the Broadway stage.

Military service

Under his original name of Henry W. Beaty, Warren Beatty enlisted in the California Air National Guard on February 11, 1960.

On January 1, 1961, Beatty was discharged from the Air National Guard due to physical disability. He was also simultaneously discharged from the United States Air Force Reserve. Since he served on inactive duty only, Beatty was not awarded any military decorations.

Career

1950s and 1960s

Beatty started his career making appearances in television series such as ''Studio One'' (1957), ''Playhouse 90'' (1959), and ''The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis'' (1959). He made his film debut under Elia Kazan's direction and opposite Natalie Wood in ''Splendor in the Grass'' (1961). The film was a box office success and Beatty was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category Best Motion Picture Actor – Drama. Subsequently he appeared in several small films such as ''The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone'' (1961). Then, at age 30, he achieved critical acclaim and power as a producer and star of ''Bonnie and Clyde'' (1967), which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Beatty.

Warner Bros. had such little faith in ''Bonnie and Clyde'', they decided to give Beatty 40% of the gross box office receipts instead of a flat fee, expecting it to be a major flop. The film made $70 million within six years.

Because of his work on ''Bonnie and Clyde'' (1967), Beatty is generally regarded as the precursor of the New Hollywood generation, which included such filmmakers as Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Martin Scorsese.

After being outmaneuvered by Woody Allen and ultimately forced out of the production of ''What's New, Pussycat?'', a film in which he was originally cast as the star, and afraid of being typecast as a milquetoast leading man, Beatty produced and starred in ''Bonnie and Clyde'' as a means of controlling the projects he was involved with. He hired the untested writers Robert Benton and David Newman, as well as director Arthur Penn, and controlled every facet of production, including cast, script and final cut of the film, as he would throughout the rest of his career, be it as producer/director or only as producer. It should be noted that in ''Bugsy'' it was Beatty, the producer, who had final cut on the film, not Barry Levinson, the director.

''Bonnie and Clyde'' became a blockbuster and cultural touchstone for the youth culture of the era. The film, along with ''Easy Rider'', marked the beginning of the so-called “New Hollywood” era , where studios gave unprecedented freedom to filmmakers to pursue their own idiosyncratic vision.

1970s and 1980s

Beatty worked under legendary director Robert Altman in ''McCabe & Mrs. Miller'' (1971) and starred in ''The Parallax View'' (1974), ''Shampoo'' (1975), which Beatty co-wrote with Robert Towne. Beatty and Towne won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film. In 1978, Beatty directed, produced, wrote and starred in ''Heaven Can Wait'' (1978). The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. The box office success of ''Shampoo'' and ''Heaven Can Wait'' allowed Beatty to handpick his next project. He used this power to make ''Reds'' (1981), an historical epic about the Communist journalist John Reed who observed the Russian October Revolution – a project Beatty had begun researching and filming for as far back as 1970.

After a six-year hiatus following ''Reds'', Beatty starred alongside Dustin Hoffman in 1987's big-budget film ''Ishtar''. It was critically panned and is regarded as one of the biggest box office bombs in film history. In 1989, he recorded the duet, "Now I'm Following You" with Madonna for her 1990 album, ''I'm Breathless''.

1990s and 2000s

In 1990, he bounced back when he produced, directed and starred (alongside his ''Ishtar'' co-star Hoffman) in the title role as the comic strip character Dick Tracy in the film of the same name. The film was one of the highest grossers of the year and also the highest-grossing film in Beatty's career to date.

In 1991, he starred as the real-life gangster Bugsy Siegel in the biopic ''Bugsy'' which was critically acclaimed and made almost fifty million dollars at the U.S. box-office. His next film, ''Love Affair'' (1994), failed to do well. In 1998 he wrote, produced, directed and starred in the political satire ''Bulworth'' which was critically appreciated and earned him another nomination for Best Original Screenplay. In 2001, he appeared in his last film to date, ''Town and Country'', which became the second-largest money loser of any movie ever made (after ''The Adventures of Pluto Nash'') based on contemporary dollars lost: it was made on a budget of approximately USD $90 million, but earned only $6.7 million domestically. Since then, Beatty has not acted in any films but has expressed interest in returning to cinema.

In 2006, Beatty was named Honorary Chairman of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, succeeding Marlon Brando. In 2007, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded Beatty the Cecil B. DeMille award, presented at the Golden Globe ceremony by Tom Hanks. Beatty was honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2008.

Beatty is on the Board of Trustees at The Scripps Research Institute.

Beatty is one of the few people to receive Oscar nominations in the Best Picture, Actor, Director, and Screenplay categories for a single film. This feat is all the more impressive since Beatty achieved it twice: in 1978 for ''Heaven Can Wait'', where he won none of the awards; and again for ''Reds'' in 1981, where he won the directing award. His writing credits have often been in dispute, however. In Peter Biskind's biography of Beatty, ''Star'', several distinguished writers with whom Beatty has collaborated (e.g., Bo Goldman, Robert Towne, James Toback, Robert Benton, et al.) have claimed that Beatty often requested or demanded writing credit where little or none was due.

Beatty's overall Academy Award nominations number 14: he received Best Picture nominations for ''Bonnie and Clyde'', and ''Bugsy'', ''Reds'' and ''Heaven Can Wait'', received writing nominations for ''Shampoo'', Reds, ''Bulworth'' and ''Heaven Can Wait'', received Best Director nominations for ''Heaven Can Wait'' and ''Reds'', and has received Best Actor nominations for ''Bonnie and Clyde'', ''Heaven Can Wait'', ''Reds'' and ''Bugsy''.

Tribune lawsuit

In May 2005, Beatty sued Tribune Co. for $30 million in damages, claiming he still maintains the rights to ''Dick Tracy''. Beatty received the rights in 1985 and claimed that Tribune moved to reclaim them in violation of various notification procedures. There was talk of a sequel, and Beatty did express interest in reprising the part, but the sequel was sidelined by unexpected legal disputes. In March 2009, Tribune filed suit against Beatty, saying that Beatty had "made no productive use" of the rights for over a decade, causing them to revert back to Tribune.

Political work

A longtime activist in various liberal political causes, Beatty has, at various times, been extremely active in the presidential politics of the Democratic Party. In 1968, he hit the campaign trail for the first time, supporting Senator Robert F. Kennedy's bid for his party's presidential nomination. His involvement in the senator's campaign, which included stump speaking and fundraising, was cut short when Kennedy was shot and killed by Sirhan Sirhan on the same night that he won a crucial primary in California.

Four years later, Beatty joined the campaign of Senator George McGovern as an advisor. As part of the so-called "Malibu Mafia," a group of Hollywood celebrities who were part of the candidate's "inner circle," Beatty gave McGovern's campaign manager Gary Hart advice about the handling of public relations and was instrumental in organizing a series of rock concerts which raised over $1 million for the senator's campaign.

In 1984, and again in 1988, Beatty was to play a similar role in Hart's own presidential campaigns. Hart, who had, by that time, become a senator himself, had become friends with Beatty during the 1972 campaign and the relationship had grown closer during the intervening decade. After Hart's second campaign imploded over allegations that he had committed adultery with a former beauty queen named Donna Rice, a mutual friend of the two explained why they were so close: "Gary always wanted to have Warren's life and Warren always wanted to have Gary's. It was a match made in heaven."

Beatty seriously considered becoming a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination during the summer of 1999 . After it became clear that the only two contenders for the Democratic Party's nomination were to be Vice President Al Gore and former Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Beatty made it generally known that he was dissatisfied with the two choices and began to drop hints that he might be willing to seek the nomination himself. After meeting with several powerful liberal activists and influential Democratic operatives, including pollster Pat Caddell, who had worked previously for Hart, McGovern, California governor Jerry Brown and President Jimmy Carter, and adman Bill Hillsman, who had worked on the campaigns of Senator Paul Wellstone and Governor Jesse Ventura, Beatty announced in September 1999 that he would not seek the nomination. However, he continued to be courted by members of a different political party, the Reform Party, who were looking for an alternative to Pat Buchanan, a conservative who had switched parties after losing the Republican Party's presidential nomination for the third time in a row. Despite frequent entreaties by Governor Ventura, real-estate magnate Donald Trump, and syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington, Beatty refused to enter the race and Buchanan eventually won the Reform Party's nomination.

Despite his decision not to seek the presidency in 2000, Beatty intimated that he might still run at a later time, telling reporters that he would do so if he thought he "could make an impact on the debate". As California governor Gray Davis' popularity with California voters dropped, Beatty campaigned against the 2003 special election. He was the keynote speaker at the California Nurses Association's 2005 convention, and recorded radio ads urging voters to reject Governor Schwarzenegger's ballot proposals. The propositions were defeated at the ballot box, increasing speculation that Beatty might run against Schwarzenegger in the 2006 election. But, in early 2006, Beatty announced he would not seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Beatty's anticipated run for president in 2000 was lampooned by Gary Trudeau in his strip Doonesbury.

Personal life

Beatty has had romantic relationships with singers Madonna, Cher, Carly Simon, Michelle Phillips, actresses Natalie Wood, her sister Lana Wood, Julie Christie, Leslie Caron, Goldie Hawn, Joan Collins, Diane Keaton, Mary Tyler Moore, Isabelle Adjani, and supermodels Elle MacPherson and Stephanie Seymour.

After years of dating many famous women, he married Annette Bening on March 12, 1992, with whom he co-starred in the film ''Bugsy''. Beatty and Benning have four children together.

Filmography

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- |rowspan=2|1961 |''Splendor in the Grass'' |Bud Stamper |Golden Globe Award for Most Promising NewcomerNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |- |''The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone'' |Paolo di Leo | |- |1962 |''All Fall Down'' |Berry-Berry Willart | |- |1964 |''Lilith'' |Vincent Bruce | |- |rowspan=3|1965 |''Mickey One'' |Mickey One | |- |''Promise Her Anything'' |Harley Rummell | |- |''What's New Pussycat'' | |(executive producer) (uncredited) |- |1966 |''Kaleidoscope'' |Barney Lincoln | |- |1967 |''Bonnie and Clyde'' |Clyde Barrow |(also producer)Nominated – Academy Award for Best ActorNominated – Academy Award for Best PictureNominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |- |1970 |''The Only Game in Town'' |Joe Grady | |- |rowspan=2|1971 |''McCabe & Mrs. Miller'' |John McCabe |- |- |''$'' |Joe Collins | |- |1973 |''Year of the Woman'' | |(documentary) |- |1974 |''The Parallax View'' |Joseph Frady | |- |rowspan=2|1975 |''Shampoo'' |George Roundy |(also producer and co-writer with Robert Towne)Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original ScreenplayNominated – Academy Award For Best Original ScreenplayNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |- |''The Fortune'' |Nicky Wilson | |- |1978 |''Heaven Can Wait'' |Joe Pendleton |(also director with Buck Henry, producer, and co-writer)Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or ComedySaturn Award for Best ActorSaturn Award for Best WritingWriters Guild of America Award for Best Adapted ScreenplayNominated – Academy Award for Best ActorNominated – Academy Award for Best PictureNominated – Academy Award for Best DirectorNominated – Academy Award for Best Adapted ScreenplayNominated – Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature FilmNominated – Saturn Award for Best Direction |- |1981 |''Reds'' |John Reed |(also director, producer, and co-writer)Academy Award for Best DirectorDavid di Donatello for Best ProducerDirectors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature FilmGolden Globe Award for Best DirectorLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best DirectorNational Board of Review Award for Best DirectorWriters Guild of America Award for Best Original ScreenplayNominated – Academy Award for Best ActorNominated – Academy Award for Best PictureNominated – Academy Award for Best Original ScreenplayNominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture DramaNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay |- |1984 |''George Stevens: A Filmmakers Journey'' | |(documentary) |- |1987 |''Ishtar'' |Lyle Rogers |(also producer) |- |1990 |''Dick Tracy'' |Dick Tracy |(also producer and director) |- |rowspan=2|1991 |''Madonna: Truth or Dare'' |himself |(documentary) |- |''Bugsy'' |Bugsy Siegel |(also producer)National Board of Review Award for Best ActorNominated – Academy Award for Best ActorNominated – Academy Award for Best PictureNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |- |1992 |''Writing with Light: Vittorio Storaro'' | |(documentary) |- |1994 |''Love Affair'' |Mike Gambril |(also producer and co-writer) |- |1998 |''Bulworth'' |Sen. Jay Billington Bulworth |(also producer, director and co-writer)Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best ScreenplayNominated – Academy Award for Best Original ScreenplayNominated – Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Adapted ScreenplayNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best ScreenplayNominated – Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated – Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay |- |1999 |''The Book That Wrote Itself'' | |(cameo) |- |2001 |''Town & Country'' |Porter Stoddard | |- |2003 |''Dean Tavoularis: The Magician of Hollywood'' | |(documentary) |- |2005 |''One Bright Shining Moment'' | |(documentary) |- |2012 |''Untitled Howard Hughes film'' |Howard Hughes | |- |}

References

Further reading

Ellis Amburn, ''The Sexiest Man Alive : A Biography of Warren Beatty'', HarperCollins Publishers Inc., New York, 2002. ISBN 0-06-018566-X

Suzanne Finstad, ''Warren Beatty : A Private Man'', Random House, Inc., New York, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-4606-8

Peter Biskind, ''Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America'', Simon & Schuster, Inc. New York, 2010. ISBN 978-0743246583

External links

Category:1937 births Category:Actors from Virginia Category:Akira Kurosawa Award winners Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American film producers Category:American people of Canadian descent Category:American screenwriters Category:Best Director Academy Award winners Category:Best Director Golden Globe winners Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:California Democrats Category:Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners Category:English-language film directors Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:Northwestern University alumni Category:People from Richmond, Virginia Category:Saturn Award winners Category:The Scripps Research Institute Category:United States Air Force airmen Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners

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