Barry Ashlin Williamson (born c. 1957) is an attorney from Austin, Texas, who was from 1992 to 1999 a Republican member of the Texas Railroad Commission. In 1992, he defeated the appointed incumbent Lena Guerrero, a Democrat, to win a seat on the three-member panel which regulates, not railroads, but oil and natural gas.^[1]

Williamson is the son of the former Alice Wicker, a native of Steele, Missouri, and Ashlin "Tunney" Williamson (1926–2011), a farmer and school board member who was born in Blytheville, Arkansas, but reared in Missouri. Barry Williamson himself was reared in Snow Lake in Desha County and in Elaine in Phillips County, both located along the Mississippi River in eastern Arkansas. Williamson and his wife, the former Holly Holt, have two sons, Holt Williamson and Ashlin Williamson. Williamson has three sisters, Jan W. Dunkerson of Rose Bud, Arkansas, Karen W. Tepovich of Houston, Texas, and Alecia W. Lybrand of Soldonta, Alaska. His brother, Tracy Williamson, is deceased.^[2]

Williamson did not seek a second term on the Railroad Commission in 1998, but he instead ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general. He lost a runoff election to John Cornyn. A third candidate eliminated in the primary was Tom Pauken, the former state party chairman. Cornyn then defeated the Democratic former attorney general Jim Mattox in the 1998 general election.

In 2010, Williamson served as campaign chairman for Republican Railroad Commission nominee David J. Porter, a Certified Public Accountant from Midland and Giddings, who upset incumbent Victor G. Carrillo of Abilene, Texas, in the party primary. Porter then defeated the Democrat Jeff Weems in the general election held on November 2, 2010. Williamson formerly resided in Midland and Dallas, Texas.

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References[link]

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Shaun Williamson
Shaun presenting an event in 2008
Born	(1965-11-04) 4 November 1965 (age 46) Maidstone, Kent, England
Occupation	Actor, singer, television personality and presenter
Years active	1989–present
Spouse	Melanie (1997–present)

Shaun Williamson (born 4 November 1965) is an English actor, singer, media personality and occasional presenter, best known for his former role as Barry Evans in soap opera EastEnders and as a version of himself in BBC sitcom Extras.

Career[link]

A former student of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, he is widely known for his portrayal of foolish and hapless Barry Evans in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, a role that he played from 1994 to 2004. This was Williamson's second role in the hit soap, he previously had a brief role as a paramedic earlier in 1994. He has recently stated that he has no regrets about leaving the show.^[1]

Other television roles have included parts in the detective series Inspector Morse and the BBC sitcom Waiting for God. In 2005 and 2006 he played a comically unemployable version of himself in Ricky Gervais' and Stephen Merchant's BBC sitcom, Extras. He also took part in the Five programme Gender Swap, where he was dressed as a woman and was given a prosthetic makeover before being sent speed-dating in his new persona, and presented the short-lived ITV gameshow 24 Hour Quiz. He also appeared in the BBC Three comedy Funland. Shaun also made a guest appearance in ITV 1 show The Bill. He played gang leader Dave Monks, who comes under scrutiny during an international drugs smuggling investigation. The two episodes were aired in August 2008. In 2009 and 2010 he recorded episodes of children's programme Scoop on CBBC (Children's BBC) with Hacker T Dog.

Stage roles have included Monty the DJ in the West End run and UK tour of Saturday Night Fever and appearing at Canterbury's Marlowe Theatre in December 2003-January 2004 in a pantomime production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, alongside Toyah Willcox.^[2] In 2006 he starred in the pantomime Dick Whittington at The Playhouse in Weston-super-Mare. He returned to the Marlowe Theatre December 2007-January 2008, in Aladdin, alongside Stephen Mulhern. During 2008 he played Nathan Detroit in the touring production of Guys and Dolls, having already appeared in the part in the West End. In the 2008-2009 he was again appearing in Aladdin, this time at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon. In May 2006, Williamson played the lead in the play Road to Nirvana at The King's Head Theatre London and in October 2006, appeared in a sketch as part of the charity benefit The Secret Policeman's Ball which was staged at the Royal Albert Hall.

Williamson was third in the 2007 series of Comic Relief does Fame Academy. Before Comic Relief he had won a hit New Zealand singing show representing England.

In 2007, he appeared in the British film Daylight Robbery.

From 2009 to 2011 Williamson has played the leading role in Scoop (TV Show), a children's comedy drama series on the BBC.^[3]

From September 2009, Shaun will be touring the UK playing "habitual criminal" Norman Stanley Fletcher in a stage version of the classic TV comedy, Porridge. The script has been newly written by the series' co-authors, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. He also appeared, alongside Stephen Merchant, in the 2009 Ricky Gervais film The Invention of Lying. As of April 2009, Williamson was appearing as Ron Freeman in the Take That musical, Never Forget.^[4]

In 2011 he again played a fictionalised version of himself in the Gervais/Merchant series Life's Too Short in a recurring role. Episode 1 aired on the tenth of November 2011.

Personal life[link]

Williamson married his wife Melanie in 1997, they have two children called Sophie Mae and Joseph.^[5] They live in Selling, Kent on the outskirts of Faversham.^[6]

In 2005 he publicly declared that he has undergone cosmetic surgery at the Farjo Medical Centre in order to restore his receding hairline.^[7][8]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Shaun Williamson at the Internet Movie Database

Interviews

• Shaun Williamson interview
• Shauny's show The Observer interview

Scott Ryan Williamson (born February 17, 1976, in Fort Polk North, Louisiana) is a right-handed relief pitcher in the Miami Marlins organization. He has played for the Cincinnati Reds (1999–2003), Boston Red Sox (2003-2004), Chicago Cubs (2005–2006), San Diego Padres (2006), and the Baltimore Orioles (2007). After a lightning-fast start: going from college to the major leagues in two years, with just five appearances at the Triple-A level and winning National League Rookie of the Year honors, Williamson's career tailed off in the mid-2000s as he suffered repeated injuries and spent long stretches on the disabled list.

Career[link]

Williamson attended Friendswood High School in Friendswood, Texas. In his senior year he posted a 0.68 ERA and was named district MVP. In college, Williamson played for first Tulane University and then Oklahoma State University. With the latter, he earned Big 12 first-team honors during the 1996-1997 school year.^[1] Williamson entered the draft after the season was over and was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 9th round, 276th pick overall.

Cincinnati Reds[link]

Cincinnati assigned Williamson their rookie affiliate, the Billings Mustangs of the Pioneer League. Starting for Billings, Williamson went 8-2 with a 1.78 ERA, the best in the league that year.^[2] For 1998 Cincinnati promoted Williamson to the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern League, bypassing Single-A altogether. In his first start for the Lookouts Williamson faced Atlanta Braves veteran John Smoltz, down with the Greenville Braves on a rehabilitation assignment. Williamson held his own, giving up two runs in six innings in a 6-5 loss. Mark Berry, Lookouts manager, praised Williamson's performance: "I was highly impressed...I expected him to be more erratic because of Smoltz, the big crowd and the whole situation. It's something he can build on."^[3] Williamson would start just 18 games for the Lookouts that year after battling injuries, but at the end of the season Cincinnati promoted him to the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians. Cincinnati planned to call Williamson up in September but he "stretched a tendon in the middle finger of his pitching hand" during a game for Indianapolis, ending his season.^[4]

Cincinnati invited Williamson to spring training in 1999, where the combination of an impressive performance and injuries to key members of the pitching staff, including Denny Neagle and Stan Belinda, led to Williamson making the major league club despite having made just five appearances at the Triple-A level and never being on the 40-man roster.^[5] Williamson made his major league debut in relief on April 5, 1999. In his rookie season with Cincinnati Williamson went 12-7 with 107 strikeouts, a 2.41 earned run average and 19 saves; made the All-Star team, and earned Rookie of the Year honors. Williamson was the first Reds player to be so honored since Chris Sabo in 1988.^[6]

During the 1999-2000 off-season Williamson's name came up several times in trade talks with the Seattle Mariners, who were looking to deal Ken Griffey, Jr., but in the end Williamson remained with Cincinnati.^[7][8] Williamson returned for the 2000 season but was bedeviled by injuries, including two broken toes in mid-September. He made fewer appearances than in 1999 but pitched more innings, due in part to joining the starting rotation after the All-Star break.^[9]

After a lackluster spring training Cincinnati returned Williamson to the bullpen, but after two appearances went on the disabled list with a torn ligament in his shoulder. After consultation with orthopedic surgeon James Andrews Williamson underwent Tommy John surgery, ending his season. Cincinnati general manager Jim Bowden called it "Devastating, just devastating."^[10] Williamson returned to the bullpen for the 2002 season and went 3-4 with a 2.92 ERA. For 2003 Williamson took over as closer and saved 21 games in 43 appearances.^[11] On July 31, 2003 Cincinnati traded Williamson to the Boston Red Sox for Phil Dumatrait, Tyler Pelland and cash. The move was part of a fire sale instigated by Cincinnati management after Bowden and manager Bob Boone were fired.^[12]

Boston Red Sox[link]

The New York Yankees had also been interested in Williamson; that Boston acquired him from Cincinnati was widely touted as a coup for Boston general manager Theo Epstein.^[13][14][15] USA Today sportswriter Hal Bodley placed the Williamson trade in the context of Red Sox-Yankees rivalry:

The Sauerbeck-Williamson deals give the Red Sox and Epstein a measure of revenge. They were stung last winter when the Yankees outbid them in a bitter battle for Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras.^[16]

The mid-season arrival of Williamson, along with Scott Sauerbeck, Jeff Suppan and Byung Hyun Kim was expected to boost an already strong Boston team to the 2003 World Series.^[15]

Williamson's tenure with Boston was a troubled one: his ERA with the team was 6.20 and he pitched just 20 innings in 24 appearances. In mid-September he underwent an MRI but the result was negative.^[17] As Boston entered the playoffs he shared closer duties with Mike Timlin. In the American League Championship series against New York, Williamson earned saves in Games 1, 4 and 6. Nevertheless, Little left a tiring Pedro Martinez in the 8th inning of Game 7 with Boston up 5-2. Martinez gave up three runs and New York would eventually win in the 11th inning 6-5. Critics maintain that Little should have pulled Martinez in favor of Williamson or Timlin, but that their mixed record during the regular season led Little to stay with the veteran Martinez.^[18][19][20] Williamson's appearances in Games 1-6 marked the first time a Boston pitcher had appeared in the first six games of a playoff series.^[21]

Williamson returned to Boston in 2004 as a middle reliever and got off to a strong start (1.69 ERA in 14 appearances) before elbow tendinitis placed him on the disabled list again in late May.^[22] Williamson returned in mid-June, but never felt completely healthy and went back on the DL at the beginning of July with a nerve impingement in his right forearm.^[23] The return to the DL was not without controversy: Williamson, feeling pain in a game against the Yankees (which the Red Sox would go on to lose), took himself out of the game. What happened next is a matter of dispute. Contemporary media accounts claim that Boston veteran starting pitcher Curt Schilling confronted Williamson and "questioned [Williamson's] manhood." Schilling would later downplay the incident, acknowledging that he and Williamson "had words" but that Schilling never doubted that Williamson was injured. Williamson indicated that he and Schilling never patched things up and said that "Unfortunately, it happened. He's got his opinion, but it wasn't right."^[24][25][26]

In August Boston placed Williamson on the 60-day disabled list as word spread that he might undergo a second "Tommy John" surgery, which would end the 2004 season and likely preclude any activity in 2005 as well.^[27] Defying predictions, Williamson returned in September and finished the season with a 1.26 ERA in 28 appearances. However, he was left off the post-season roster and underwent surgery as Boston won the 2004 World Series.^[28] Williamson filed for free agency at the end of the season, and departed the organization after Boston declined to offer arbitration.^[29]

Chicago Cubs[link]

At the start of 2005 the Chicago Cubs signed Williamson to a minor league contract and added him to their 40-man roster, but he almost immediately went on the 60-day disabled list: in the end Williamson had undergone the second Tommy John surgery and was not yet recovered.^[30] Williamson returned to the team in August but struggled with his velocity. Sportswriters wondered at the wisdom of coming back in less than 12 months without the benefit of spring training. Williamson himself said that he was "trying to find my rhythm and it's hard to do that at the big-league level."^[31] Williamson eventually appeared in 17 games; his ERA, 8.68 in the beginning of September, dropped to 5.65 by the end of the season.^[32] Showing its confidence in Williamson, Chicago exercised its option to bring him back for another season.^[33]

Williamson made the 2006 team as a middle reliever, losing the closer's job to Ryan Dempster. Williamson had expressed a willingness to be traded if it meant taking over the closer's job for the new team.^[34][35] In early June, after making 23 appearances with an ERA over 4, Williamson went back on the disabled list with tendinitis.^[36] Williamson returned at the end of June and pitched in eight more games, but on July 22 Chicago traded him to the San Diego Padres for minor League pitchers Fabian Angulo and Joel Santo.^[37]

San Diego Padres[link]

Williamson joined a San Diego team in first place in the National League West division, a prospect which cheered him: "Going from second-to-last to first place, that's always exciting."^[38] In an interview with the Galveston County Daily News, Williamson also expressed disappointment at the way Chicago manager Dusty Baker had used him and revealed that he had considered retiring altogether. Now with San Diego, Williamson said that he was "having a lot of fun here, and I'm back to being myself, laughing and joking."^[39] Just days after that interview was published, Williamson made his last appearance for San Diego: an MRI revealed a bone chip in his elbow. Williamson returned to the DL and sat out the rest of the season.^[40] San Diego released Williamson on October 12.^[41]

Baltimore Orioles[link]

In late November 2006 the Baltimore Orioles signed Williamson to a one-year contract.^[42] After six appearances and an ERA of 1.60, Williamson went on the disabled list with tightness in his right triceps tendon.^[43] Williamson returned in June and appeared in ten more games, but lingering questions about his health and a desire on the part of Baltimore's management to promote younger players led to him being designated for assignment on July 4. In sixteen games Williamson was 1-0 with a 4.40 ERA.^[44] Williamson cleared waivers and was released.

Around the minors[link]

The New York Yankees signed Williamson to a minor league contract on July 22. He was released on August 5 after going 0-1 with a 9.82 ERA in 4 games with the Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees.^[45] In early February 2008, Williamson signed a one year minor league contract with the San Francisco Giants.^[46] He would have made $700,000 if he had made the Giants major league roster.^[46] After posting a 13.50 ERA with the Giants in spring training, Williamson was released on March 5, 2008. Williamson was signed to a minor league contract by the Atlanta Braves in April. They released him in early June.^[47]

On June 15, 2008, the Seattle Mariners signed him to a minor league contract. After joining the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers and his third organization that year, Williamson remarked that "This year has been kind of a crazy year for me...It's kind of frustrating, but it feels good to go out and compete."^[48] but he was released in late June after just three appearances.

On January 24, 2009, Williamson signed a minor league deal with the Detroit Tigers, who were looking for middle relievers after a disappointing 2008 season. In the end Williamson lost out to newcomer Ryan Perry and was sent down to the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. Detroit manager Jim Leyland praised Williamson's experience: "I think Scott Williamson has an excellent chance...You're talking about a pretty big-time Major League pitcher at one time."^[49] Once in Toledo, however, Williamson had difficulties making a consistent outing and his ERA climbed steadily. On April 26, 2009, Toledo released Williamson to make room for Eddie Bonine, ending Williamson's comeback attempt within the Detroit Tigers organization.^[50]

On August 2, 2010, Scott Williamson agreed to pitch for the Somerset Patriots. http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/patriots/2010/08/02/coming-and-going/

See also[link]

• List of Major League Baseball all-time saves leaders

References[link]

External links[link]

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube

Barry James is a stage actor and singer.

Theatre credits[link]

He trained at the Guildford School of Acting.^[1]

His stage roles include:

• Seymour in the first West End production of Little Shop of Horrors at the Comedy Theatre
• as Otto Kringelein in "Grand Hotel (musical)" at the Dominion Theatre' 1992
• Beadle Bamford in the 1994 National Theatre production of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd
• Cogsworth in the first West End production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast at the Dominion Theatre (a role he reprised in the UK Tour of the show)
• Mr. Bumble in the London Palladium production of Lionel Bart's Oliver!
• Ladislav Sipos in "She Loves Me" at the Savoy Theatre London in 1994/95
• Thenardier in the London production of Les Misérables at the Palace Theatre and Queen's Theatre
• Mr. Mushnik in the 2008 London revival of Little Shop of Horrors at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
• Monsieur Firmin in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre, London

James can be heard on cast recordings of Beauty and the Beast, My Fair Lady, "She Loves Me" and two Bernard J. Taylor musicals - Nosferatu the Vampire (in which he created the role of "Renfeld"), Much Ado in which he created the role of Leonato, and Monsieur Firmin in "The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary Concert". He is also Thenardier in the 1988 symphonic cast recording of Les Misérables.

Notes[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2010)

Phantom of the Opera Royal Albert Hall Blueray DVD and cast recording

References[link]

• Larkin, Colin; John Martland (1999). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Stage and Film Musicals, London: Virgin in association with Muze UK Ltd. ISBN 0-7535-0375-1.
• Guide to Musical Theatre
• Playbill News

External links[link]

• Bernard J. Taylor's website

Adlai Stevenson was called an "egghead" by Richard Nixon during the 1952 US presidential race.

In the slang of the United States, egghead is an anti-intellectual epithet, directed at people considered too out-of-touch with ordinary people and too lacking in realism, common sense, virility, etc. on account of their intellectual interests. A similar, though not necessarily pejorative, British term is boffin.^[1] The term egghead reached its peak currency during the 1950s, when vice-presidential candidate Richard Nixon used it against Democratic Presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson. It was used by Clinton advisor Paul Begala in the 2008 presidential campaign to describe Senator Barack Obama's supporters when he said, "Obama can't win with just the eggheads and African-Americans."^[2] The term has largely been replaced by other anti-intellectual epithets such as elitist (political), and geek or nerd (social).

Origins[link]

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning historical essay on American anti-intellectualism, historian Richard Hofstadter wrote: "During the campaign of 1952, the country seemed to be in need of some term to express that disdain for intellectuals which had by then become a self-conscious motif in American politics. The word egghead was originally used without invidious associations, but quickly assumed them, and acquired a much sharper tone than the traditional highbrow. Shortly after the campaign was over, Louis Bromfield, a popular novelist of right-wing political persuasion, suggested that the word might someday find its way into dictionaries as follows:

"Egghead: A person of spurious intellectual pretensions, often a professor or the protégé of a professor. Essentially confused in thought and immersed in mixture of sentimentality and violent evangelism. A doctrinaire supporter of Middle-European socialism as opposed to Greco-French-American ideas of democracy and liberalism. Subject to the old-fashioned philosophical morality of Nietzsche which frequently leads him into jail or disgrace. A self-conscious prig, so given to examining all sides of a question that he becomes thoroughly addled while remaining always in the same spot. An anemic bleeding heart.

"'The recent election,' Bromfield remarked, 'demonstrated a number of things, not the least of them being the extreme remoteness of the 'egghead' from the thought and feeling of the whole of the people'" (Anti-Intellectualism in American Life [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963], pp. 9-10).

In their Dictionary of American Slang (1960; 2nd supplemented ed. 1975), Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner cite two earlier meanings of egghead, one referring to baldness, the other to stupidity. Wentworth and Flexner note that the meaning under discussion here was "[p]op. during presidential campaign of 1952 when the supporters of Adlai Stevenson, Democratic candidate, were called eggheads. Thus orig. the term carried the connotation of 'politically minded' and 'liberal'; today its application is more general. May have originated in ref. to the high forehead of Mr. Stevenson or of the pop. image of an academician" (p. 171).

In popular culture[link]

• Egghead, brainy Batman villain.
• Egghead, genius Marvel comics character.

Store[link]

Egghead Software was a once popular technology company based in Bellevue WA, USA.

References[link]