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• 
  

• 
  Muhammad Ali Center
  Coordinates: 38°15′29.4″N 85°45′36.2″W / 38.258167°N 85.760056°W / 38.258167; -85.760056
  The Muhammad Ali Center, a museum and cultural center built as a tribute to the champion athlete and his values, is located in Louisville, Kentucky's "Museum Row" in the West Main District of downtown.
  The six-story, 96,750 sq ft (8,988 m²). museum opened on November 19, 2005 at a cost of $80 million. It also includes a 40,000 sq ft (3,700 m²). two-level amphitheater and plaza, to be connected to the Louisville Museum Plaza upon its construction.
  The cultural center features exhibitions regarding Muhammad Ali's core values on respect, confidence, conviction, dedication, charity, and spirituality. An orientation theater helps present Ali's life from birth to the present. A mock-boxing ring is recreated based on his Deer Lake Training Camp. A two-level pavilion, housed within a large elliptical room, features Ali's boxing memorabilia and history. A large projector displays 'The Greatest', his signature fight, onto a full-sized boxing ring. There are also pods where one can view Ali's greatest fights on video-on-demand terminals that feature pre- and post-fight interviews.
  
  wn.com/Muhammad_Ali_Center
• 
  United States
  The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
  At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
  
  wn.com/United_States

• 
  Angelo Dundee
  Angelo Dundee (born Angelo Mirena; August 30, 1921 – February 1, 2012) was an American boxing trainer and cornerman. Best known for his work with Muhammad Ali (1960–1981), he also worked with 15 other world boxing champions, including Sugar Ray Leonard, José Nápoles, George Foreman, George Scott, Jimmy Ellis, Carmen Basilio, Luis Rodriguez and Willie Pastrano.
  Born in Philadelphia of Italian descent, Dundee went to New York and later to Miami where he learned many of the strategies of a boxer's cornerman while acting as a "bucket man" to the great trainers of Stillman's Gym. There, his mentors included Charlie Goldman, Ray Arcel, and Chickie Ferrera. Later, his brother Chris Dundee opened the Fifth Street Gym in Miami.
  Carmen Basilio was the first world champion for whom Dundee acted as a cornerman when Basilio defeated Tony DeMarco for the world welterweight crown and later Sugar Ray Robinson for the world middleweight crown.
  
  wn.com/Angelo_Dundee
• Archie Moore
  Archie Moore (born Archibald Lee Wright; December 13, 1916 – December 9, 1998), was an American professional boxer and the Light Heavyweight World Champion (1952–1959 and 1961), who had one of the longest professional careers in the history of the sport. Nicknamed "The Old Mongoose," Moore holds the record for the most career knockouts (131). He ranks #4 on The Ring's list of "100 greatest punchers of all-time," and is rated by prominent boxing website BoxRec as the greatest pound-for-pound boxer of all-time.
  A native of Benoit, Mississippi, Moore was raised in St. Louis, Missouri. An important figure in the American black community, he became involved in African American causes once his days as a fighter were over. He also established himself as a successful character actor in television and film. Moore died in his adopted home of San Diego, California.
  Moore often found himself in trouble as a youngster, and was in a reformatory until 1934. In 1935, he began his boxing career with nine fights as a boxer, winning 5 and losing 4. (He also claimed to have boxed under the name "Fourth of July Kid," so he may have had even more fights.)
  
  wn.com/Archie_Moore
• Barry Shabaka Henley
  Barry Shabaka Henley (born Barry Joseph Henley; September 15, 1954) is an American character actor. Henley is a fixture in many films, most often the films of director Michael Mann, having worked with the director four times.
  Henley played Herbert Muhammad in Ali. In Collateral he made an impression as a sensitive jazz musician living on borrowed time. He also starred in Steven Spielberg's The Terminal. In Miami Vice, Henley succeeded Edward James Olmos as superior officer, Lt. Martin Castillo. He also appeared in the short-lived television series, Robbery Homicide Division and Barbershop. From 2009 to 2010, he played the recurring character of FBI Agent Vreede in FlashForward, an ABC television series. He also played Buddy in How Stella Got Her Groove Back.
  It was announced that Henley will have a role on Heroes as Detective Fuller. In 1999 Henley supplied the role of Pokerface in the Eddie Murphy/Martin Lawrence film Life.
  As a stage actor, Henley's honors include the Drama Desk, Obie, and Olivier Awards. He was also a member of the West Coast Black Repertory Theatre and the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
  
  wn.com/Barry_Shabaka_Henley
• Bruce McGill
  Bruce Travis McGill (born July 11, 1950) is an American actor who has an extensive list of credits in film and television. He is perhaps best known for his role as Jack Dalton on the television series MacGyver and as Daniel Simpson "D-Day" Day in National Lampoon's Animal House.
  McGill was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Adriel Rose (née Jacobs), an artist, and Woodrow Wilson McGill, a real estate and insurance agent. He graduated from Douglas MacArthur High School in the northeastern part of San Antonio and from The University of Texas at Austin with a degree in drama. He is related to former Texas State Senator A.R. Schwartz.
  McGill has starred in many films, perhaps his most well-known role being "D-Day" in the 1978 comedy classic National Lampoon's Animal House, a role McGill was desperate to take at the time, recalling his days as a young unemployed actor sitting in a New York City casting office. In Animal House, he played the William Tell Overture by drumming his fingers on his windpipe. He duplicated this talent in MacGyver, playing "Rock-A-Bye Baby" to lull a child in his care to sleep.
  
  wn.com/Bruce_McGill
• Charles Shufford
  Charles Shufford (born Charles Lamont Shufford, Jr on February 3, 1973 in Martinsville, Virginia) is a professional boxer.
  He had 35 amateur fights at superheavyweight (no exact record given) and in 1996 beat Lance Whitaker but lost to Joe Mesi and Lovy Page.
  As a pro Shufford's biggest victory was a win over once-beaten amateur star and future WBO champ Lamon Brewster in 2000 via unanimous decision. He also beat shopworn puncher Jimmy Thunder.
  His most notable fight was a devastating 6th-round knockout loss to WBO champ Wladimir Klitschko in 2001. Shufford also is known for losses to Lawrence Clay Bey and contenders Jameel McCline and Samuel Peter.
  Shufford has gone 0–2–1 in his last three fights with the draw coming to Kelvin Davis and the losses to Malik Scott and Jason Estrada. He hasn't fought in a year and 9 months.^[when?]
  Perhaps Shufford's most notable accomplishment has been outside of the ring. He played the role of George Foreman in the 2001 movie Ali (film).
  
  wn.com/Charles_Shufford
• 
  Chuck Bodak
  Vasil "Chuck" Bodak (June 3, 1916 - February 6, 2009) was an American boxing cutman who worked with over 50 world champions including Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Tommy Hearns, Julio Cesar Chavez, Evander Holyfield and Oscar De La Hoya.
  Bodak trained Muhammad Ali, then named Cassius Clay, for the last four years of Clay's amateur career that culminated with the winning of a Gold Medal for the light-heavyweight competition at the 1960 Summer Olympic Games held in Rome, Italy.
  One of the unique traits Bodak adopted was the placing of photos of his fighters on his forehead before fights.
  Even though advancing in age, Bodak continued to work in the ring and was active in the boxing community until he suffered a stroke in 2007 at the age of 90.
  Bodak was born June 3, 1916 in Gary, Indiana and died on February 6, 2009 in Orange County, California at the age of 92.
  Bodak was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame, "Expanded Category" (Managers & Trainers).
  In 1993, he was honored by the Cauliflower Alley Club.
  
  wn.com/Chuck_Bodak
• David Cubitt
  David Cubitt (born 18 March 1965) is a British-born Canadian television actor.
  Born in England in 1965 to a Dutch mother and a British father, he moved with his parents to Vancouver, British Columbia when he was six months old. He studied at Studio 58 there. He has starred in the Canadian series Traders and the American series Robbery Homicide Division.
  He appeared as Det. Lee Scanlon in the NBC series Medium. He appeared in the NBC disaster miniseries 10.5 and 10.5: Apocalypse, and made his film debut in Alive: The Miracle of the Andes (1993), co-starring Ethan Hawke.
  
  
  
  wn.com/David_Cubitt
• David Haines
  David Charles Haines (born on 4 February 1956) is an English composer and songwriter. He was trained at Bristol University, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada. Haines mostly works with community music groups, amateur theatrical societies, schools, colleges and pre-schools. Haines created Singtastic to allow access to his songs which also includes downloadable teaching material. Three of his music theatre works have received professional productions and his concert songs have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and performed at such venues as the Carnegie Hall in New York and London's Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room. In recent years he has written works explicitly aimed at creating enthusiasm and interest in science through song.
  Haines chooses to share his knowledge of science through song. Haines uses song to communicate his enthusiasm for the knowledge and discovery that science opens up.
  Lifetime and Powers of Ten are just two expressions of that passion for science. Both are science oratorios which have been performed by choir groups made up of more than 400 multi-generational members in Devon UK and Massachusetts USA, the most recent performance having taken place on 4 April 2009 at the first San Diego Science Festival in California, USA.
  
  wn.com/David_Haines
• Drew Bundini Brown
  Drew Bundini Brown (March 21, 1928 – September 24, 1987) was an assistant trainer and cornerman of Muhammad Ali throughout the former heavyweight champion's career, as well as occasional film actor.
  Brown, who was born in Midway, Florida, and raised in nearby Sanford, Florida, was a junior high school dropout after the eighth grade. The strapping young Brown, who had matured rapidly during puberty, was able to lie about his age and join the Navy as a messboy at age 13.
  Discharged two years later, he would become a United States Merchant Marine, and would spend 12 years traveling the world, later becoming a part of Sugar Ray Robinson's entourage as a cornerman.
  Brown joined Ali's entourage as a cornerman in 1963, when the boxer was known as Cassius Clay, and remained with him until his final fight in 1981.
  Brown was also one of Ali's speech writers. He wrote certain poems, such as coining Ali's famous and oft quoted:
  "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, your hands can't hit what your eyes can't see."
  
  wn.com/Drew_Bundini_Brown
• 
  Elijah Muhammad
  Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Robert Poole; October 7, 1897 – February 25, 1975) was an African American religious leader, and led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975. Muhammad was a mentor to Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, Muhammad Ali; and his son Warith Deen Mohammed.
  Elijah Muhammad was born Elijah Robert Poole in Sandersville, Georgia, the sixth of thirteen children to William Poole, Sr. (1868–1942), a Baptist lay preacher and sharecropper, and Mariah Hall (1873–1958), a homemaker and sharecropper.
  Poole's education ended at the fourth grade. To support the family, he worked with his parents as a sharecropper. When he was sixteen years old, he left home and began working in factories and at other businesses.
  Poole married Clara Evans (1899–1972) on March 7, 1917. In 1923, the Pooles, like hundreds of thousands of other African Americans in those years, migrated from the Jim Crow South to the northern states for safety and employment opportunities in the industrial cities. Poole later recounted that before the age of 20, he had witnessed the lynchings of three black men by white people. He said, "I seen enough of the white man's brutality to last me 26,000 years".
  
  wn.com/Elijah_Muhammad
• Emmanuel Lubezki
  Emmanuel Lubezki Morgenstern, ASC, AMC (born 1964), better known as Emmanuel Lubezki, is a five time Academy Award nominated Mexican cinematographer, known for his groundbreaking techniques and characteristic style.^[vague] His nickname is "Chivo".
  Lubezki was born in Mexico City, Mexico to a Jewish family. His father is actor Muni Lubezki. He began his career in Mexican film and television productions in the late 1980s, such as the horror-oriented cult series La Hora Marcada (1986). His first American production was the 1993 independent film Twenty Bucks, which followed the journey of a single twenty-dollar bill.
  Lubezki frequently collaborates with fellow Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón. The two have been friends since they were teenagers and attended the same film school at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Together they have worked on six motion pictures: Sólo con tu Pareja (1991), A Little Princess (1995), Great Expectations (1998), Y tu mamá también (2001), Children of Men (2006) and Gravity (2012). His work with Cuarón on Children of Men (2006), has received universal acclaim. The film utilized a number of new technologies and distinctive techniques. The "roadside ambush" scene was shot in one extended take utilizing a special camera rig invented by Doggicam systems, developed from the company's Power Slide system. For the scene, a vehicle was modified to enable seats to tilt and lower actors out of the way of the camera. The windshield of the car was designed to tilt out of the way to allow camera movement in and out through the front windscreen. A crew of four, including Lubezki, rode on the roof. Children of Men also features a seven and a half minute battle sequence composed of roughly five seamless edits.
  
  wn.com/Emmanuel_Lubezki
• Eric Roth
  Eric Roth (born 22 March 1945) is an American screenwriter. He won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump (1994). He also co-wrote the screenplay for Michael Mann's The Insider (1999), the Steven Spielberg film Munich (2005), and David Fincher's film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), all of which were nominated for Oscars.
  Roth was born in New York City, New York, the son of Miriam "Mimi", a teacher, studio executive, and radio writer, and Leon Roth, a university teacher and film producer. He has a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from UCLA Film School as well as a degree from University of California, Santa Barbara.
  Roth is one of the investors defrauded by Bernard Madoff in a "Ponzi Scheme" via Stanley Chais. He stated that his losses were heavy and he has lost his retirement money, although the full extent is unknown. As a result of the fraud and the associated losses, Roth is suing the estate of Chais, who died on September 26, 2010. Roth is rumored to be writing a screenplay dealing with the Madoff-Chais scandal.
  
  wn.com/Eric_Roth
• Ferdie Pacheco
  Dr. Ferdie Pacheco was the personal physician and cornerman for world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, as well as numerous other boxing champions. Beginning in the late 1970s, Pacheco was a TV boxing analyst for several television networks, most notably Showtime. Pacheco is also a prolific author and painter and currently resides in Miami, Florida with his wife Luisita. His nickname is the "Fight Doctor."
  Ferdie Pacheco was born on December 8, 1927 in the immigrant community of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida. Boxing was a popular sport in Ybor City, and Pacheco took an early interest. He received his Bachelors degree from the University of Florida, and his Medical Degree from the University of Miami. After graduation, he set up practice in the Little Havana community of Miami and began working with boxers alongside Angelo Dundee at the 5th Street Gym.
  In 1962, Pacheco began working with Muhammad Ali when the then-Cassius Clay was training in Miami. Pacheco became Ali's cornerman and physician and would remain so until the latter parts of Ali's career. In 1977, Pacheco was concerned about potential liver and kidney damage and noticed that Ali's reflexes were slowing down. He recommended that Ali retire, but Ali continued to fight. Due to this difference of opinion, Pacheco left Ali's camp. Despite this disagreement, he and Ali are still friends to this day.
  
  wn.com/Ferdie_Pacheco
• 
  George Foreman
  George Edward Foreman (nicknamed "Big George") (born January 10, 1949) is a retired American professional boxer, former two-time World Heavyweight Champion, Olympic gold medalist, ordained Baptist minister, author and successful entrepreneur.
  A gold medalist at the 1968 Olympics, Foreman won the World Heavyweight title with a second round knockout of then-undefeated Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica in 1973. He made two successful title defenses before losing to Muhammad Ali in "The Rumble in the Jungle" in 1974. He fought on but was unable to secure another title shot and retired following a loss to Jimmy Young in 1977 and became an ordained Christian minister. Ten years later Foreman announced a comeback, and in November 1994, at age 45, he regained the Heavyweight Championship by knocking out Michael Moorer. He remains the oldest Heavyweight Champion in history. He retired in 1997 at the age of 48, with a final record of 76–5, including 68 knockouts.
  Foreman has been inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame and the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) currently rates Foreman as the eighth greatest heavyweight of all-time. In 2002, he was named one of the 25 greatest fighters of the past eighty years by The Ring magazine.The Ring also ranked him as the 9th greatest puncher of all-time. He was a ringside analyst for HBO's boxing coverage for twelve years, leaving in 2004. Outside of boxing, he is a successful entrepreneur and is known for his promotion of the George Foreman Grill, which has sold over 100 million units worldwide. In 1999 he sold the naming rights to the grill for $138 million.
  
  wn.com/George_Foreman
• Giancarlo Esposito
  Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito (born April 26, 1958) is an American film and television actor and director best known for his roles in such films as The Usual Suspects and School Daze and as Gus Fring on the AMC series Breaking Bad. He currently appears in the ABC series Once Upon a Time, as the Evil Queen's magic mirror and "Daily Mirror" reporter Sidney.
  Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and African American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same bill as entertainer Josephine Baker. His father was from Naples, and worked as a stagehand and carpenter. Esposito lived in Europe until the family settled in Manhattan when he was six.
  Esposito made his Broadway debut (1966) at age eight playing a slave child opposite Shirley Jones in the short-lived Maggie Flynn. He did not take offense at the play's racial politics then; he was thrilled. "I had a solo and everything."
  During the 1980s Esposito appeared in small roles in films such as Maximum Overdrive, King of New York, and Trading Places and TV shows such as Miami Vice and Spenser: For Hire. He played J.C. Pierce, a cadet in the 1981 movie Taps. In 1988 he landed his breakout role as the leader ('Dean Big Brother Almighty') of the black fraternity "Gamma Phi Gamma" in director Spike Lee's film School Daze. Over the next four years, Esposito and Lee collaborated on three other movies: Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, and Malcolm X.
  
  wn.com/Giancarlo_Esposito
• Howard Bingham
  Howard Bingham (born Jackson, Mississippi, 1939 is the biographer of Muhammad Ali and a professional photographer.
  He was the son of a minister and Pullman porter for the US railroad. After initially failing a photography course, he was hired by a local newspaper and there he met the young Cassius Clay (later to become Muhammad Ali). The two built up an instant rapport and many years later, Bingham went on to create arguably the definitive book of photographs of Ali, Muhammad Ali: A Thirty-Year Journey.
  Bingham was the first black photographer to work on a Hollywood Camera Guild crew. His photographs have been published in magazines and periodicals including: Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, People, Ebony and others. He was selected as a photographer for the 1990 project Songs of My People.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Howard_Bingham
• 
  Howard Cosell
  Howard William Cosell (/koʊˈsɛl/; born Howard William Cohen; March 25, 1918 – April 23, 1995) was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these. Of course, I am." In its obituary for Cosell, The New York Times described Cosell's impact on American sports coverage: "He entered sports broadcasting in the mid-1950s, when the predominant style was unabashed adulation, [and] offered a brassy counterpoint that was first ridiculed, then copied until it became the dominant note of sports broadcasting."
  In 1996, Howard Cosell was ranked #47 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time and in 2011 his first full biography, Mark Ribowsky's Howard Cosell: The Man, The Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports, was published.
  Cosell was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to accountant Isidore Cohen and his wife Nellie Cohen. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York. His parents had wanted him to become a lawyer. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from New York University, where he was a member of Pi Lambda Phi. He then earned a degree at New York University School of Law, where he was a member of the law review.
  
  wn.com/Howard_Cosell
• 
  Jada Pinkett Smith
  Jada Koren Pinkett Smith ( /ˈdʒeɪdə ˈpɪŋkɨt ˈsmɪθ/; born September 18, 1971) is an American actress, producer, director, author, singer-songwriter, and businesswoman. She began her career in 1990, when she made a guest appearance in the short-lived sitcom True Colors. She starred in A Different World, produced by Bill Cosby, and she featured opposite Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor (1996). She starred in dramatic films such as Menace II Society (1993) and Set It Off (1996). She has appeared in more than 20 films in a variety of genres, including Scream 2, Ali, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Madagascar and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
  Pinkett Smith launched her music career in 2005, when she helped create the metal band Wicked Wisdom, for which she is a singer and songwriter. Smith also created a production company and a makeover line, in addition to authoring a book, published in 2004.
  In 1997, she married rapper and actor Will Smith; they have two children, Jaden and Willow. Pinkett Smith is the stepmother to Smith's son, Willard "Trey" Smith III, from a previous marriage. Together, the couple have founded the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation, a charity organization which focuses on urban inner city youth and family support. The foundation has worked with non-profit organizations, such as YouthBuild and the Lupus Foundation of America.
  
  wn.com/Jada_Pinkett_Smith
• James Lassiter
  James Lassiter is an American film producer. He is actor Will Smith's long-time business partner.
  Lassiter attended University of Miami and Temple University and befriended Jeffrey "Jazzy Jeff" Townes, who was in a rap duo with then-musician Will Smith. Lassiter met Smith through Townes, and he later became Smith's road manager. They worked together for two decades. Lassiter briefly worked with other companies including Handprint and The Firm, but he returned to being Will Smith's business partner. Lassiter and Smith formed the production company Overbrook, which produced films like Hitch and ATL. While Overbook had a deal with Universal Studios to produce films, none resulted, and the company was taken to Sony. The pair sought to market each of their productions to a different foreign market, promoting I, Robot in Russia and Ali in South Africa.
  
  wn.com/James_Lassiter
• 
  James Toney
  James Nathanial Toney (born August 24, 1968) is an American professional boxer who has held world titles in the middleweight, super middleweight, and cruiserweight divisions. He grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and graduated from Huron High School. Toney currently fights in the heavyweight division in boxing and also now competes in mixed martial arts.
  Toney's amateur boxing record is 33 fights, 31 wins and 2 losses with 29 KOs. He won the 1983 and 1984 West Michigan Division Junior Title (156 lb), 1987 Novice Golden Gloves in Manchester (156 lb), 1987 Michigan Silver Gloves (156 lb) and 1988 Ohio State Fair (156 lb)
  Toney had his first professional fight on October 26, 1988, beating Stephen Lee by a technical knockout in the second round. He was scouted and trained by Gregory Owens as a teenager, who also was his trainer through the mid-nineties. His moniker of "Lights Out" was also given by either Gregory or his son.
  On March 10, 1989, his manager Johnny "Ace" Smith was killed outside of the Page One Bar in Detroit. Jackie Kallen then became his manager. He won the Michigan Middleweight title in 1990, knocking out Philip Morefield in the 1st round.
  
  wn.com/James_Toney
• 
  Jamie Foxx
  Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, rapper, stand-up comedian, and talk radio host who began playing the piano when he was five years old. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a musical/comedy. He is also a Grammy Award winning musician, producing three albums which have charted highly on the Billboard 200: Unpredictable, which topped the chart, Best Night of My Life and Intuition.
  Born in Terrell, Texas, Foxx was raised by his mother's adoptive parents. He performed in high school and was awarded with a scholarship to United States International University. In his twenties, Foxx began performing stand-up at comedy clubs, and eventually joined the cast of In Living Color in 1991; this exposure helped him land film roles and star in his own sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show. He released his debut album, Peep This, in 1994, but he did not gain significant musical success until 2004 when he was featured in Twista's song "Slow Jamz". Also in 2004, Foxx played critically acclaimed roles in the films Collateral and Ray. He released his second album, Unpredictable, in 2005, which was helped by his collaboration on Kanye West's number-one single "Gold Digger". His third album Intuition was released in 2008 and was anchored by the single "Blame It". Foxx released his fourth studio album, Best Night of My Life, in 2010.
  
  wn.com/Jamie_Foxx
• Jerry Quarry
  Jerry Quarry (May 15, 1945 - January 3, 1999), nicknamed "Irish" or “The Bellflower Bomber,” was a U.S. Irish heavyweight boxer. Quarry was rated by Ring Magazine as the most popular fighter in the sport, 1968–1971, and was one of the biggest stars of arguably the greatest era in the history of the heavyweight division.^{[citation needed]}
  Quarry was a durable and smart counter-puncher. He had fast hands, an excellent left hook, and punched well with both hands. He also had a remarkable chin and was always courageous. His major flaw was a tendency to cut easily and having the bad luck to box in the era of Ali, Frazier, Foreman and Norton. He was six feet (1.83 metres) tall and weighed 195-pounds (88 kilograms) in his prime, which whilst comparable to some Heavyweight Boxers then, put him on the small side of the division. He would today would be considered cruiser-weight - a division he and others perhaps helped inspire.
  He was the hero to a large and enthusiastic U.S. Irish family, which included three other pro' boxers (his father and two brothers). Quarry's father first put gloves on his son at five years. His career, he felt, was decided for him at a very young age.
  
  wn.com/Jerry_Quarry
• 
  Joe Frazier
  Joseph William "Joe" Frazier (January 12, 1944 – November 7, 2011), also known as Smokin' Joe, was an American professional boxer and Olympic and Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion, whose professional career lasted from 1965 to 1976, with a one-fight comeback in 1981.
  Frazier emerged as the top contender in the late 1960s, defeating opponents that included Jerry Quarry, Oscar Bonavena, Buster Mathis, Eddie Machen, Doug Jones, George Chuvalo and Jimmy Ellis en route to becoming Undisputed Heavyweight Champion in 1970, and followed up by defeating Muhammad Ali on points in the highly-anticipated "Fight of the Century" in 1971. Two years later Frazier lost his title when he was knocked out by George Foreman. He fought on, beating Joe Bugner, losing a rematch to Ali and beating Quarry and Ellis again.
  Frazier's last world title challenge came in 1975, but he was beaten by Ali in their brutal rubbermatch. He retired in 1976 following a second loss to Foreman. He made a comeback in 1981, fighting just once, before retiring for good. The International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) rates Frazier among the ten greatest heavyweights of all time. He was an inductee of both the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame.
  
  wn.com/Joe_Frazier
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  Joe Morton
  Joseph Thomas "Joe" Morton, Jr. (born October 18, 1947) is an American stage, television, and film actor.
  Morton was born in The Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York. He is the son of Evelyn, a secretary, and Joseph Thomas Morton, Sr., a U.S. army intelligence officer. Because of his father's profession, he spent parts of his childhood in West Germany and Okinawa. Morton graduated from Hofstra University.
  Morton made his Broadway debut in Hair, appeared in Salvation, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Raisin. He has appeared in over 70 movies, including Terminator 2: Judgment Day (as Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson) and Blues Brothers 2000 (as 'Cabel "Cab" Chamberlain', based upon the late Cab Calloway), and has made many notable TV guest appearances, including his appearances as Dr. Steven Hamilton in the first two seasons of Smallville.
  On television, Morton has starred in the Sanford and Son spin-off Grady (1975–1976), Equal Justice (1990–91), Under One Roof (1995), and E-Ring (2005). More recently, he portrayed the jack-of-all-trades scientist, Henry Deacon, as a regular on Sci-Fi Channel's Eureka (2006-). Morton has also directed and produced. He has made several appearances as a defense attorney on Law & Order.
  
  wn.com/Joe_Morton
• Jon Peters
  Jon Peters (born John H. Peters; June 2, 1945) is an American movie producer.
  Peters was born in Van Nuys, California, the son of Helen (née Pagano), a receptionist, and Jack Peters, a cook who owned a Hollywood diner. He is of Cherokee (father) and Italian (mother) descent. His mother's family owned a renowned Rodeo Drive salon in Beverly Hills. Jack Peters suffered a heart attack and died when his son was ten, and Helen's marriage to a construction worker devastated the family.
  Peters went into the family hair styling business and was successful on Rodeo Drive in Hollywood where he made many industry connections. Peters first gained national prominence when he began dating superstar singer and actress Barbra Streisand after designing the short wig Barbra wore for the 1974 comedy For Pete's Sake. He then produced Streisand's 1974 Butterfly album, from which two songs, "There Won't Be Trumpets/A Quiet Thing" and "God Bless the Child", were later released on her Just For the Record box set - on the liner notes she stated that 'no one at the record company shared my enthusiasm. They thought the songs didn't belong on a contemporary album like Butterfly'. In 1976 he was given a controversial producing credit on Streisand's remake of A Star Is Born. He worked with Peter Guber for the next ten years. Their hits included The Color Purple, Flashdance, Batman, and Rain Man. He headed Sony Pictures with Guber for two years until Guber fired him. The pair were the subject of the book Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood by Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters.
  
  wn.com/Jon_Peters
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  Jon Voight
  Jonathan Vincent "Jon" Voight (/vɔɪt/) (born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He has won one Academy Award, out of four nominations, and three Golden Globe Awards, out of nine nominations. Voight is the father of actress Angelina Jolie.
  Voight came to prominence in the late 1960s with his performance as a would-be gigolo in Midnight Cowboy (1969). During the 1970s, he became a Hollywood star with his portrayals of a businessman mixed up with murder in Deliverance (1972), a paraplegic Vietnam veteran in Coming Home (1978), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, and a penniless ex-boxing champion in The Champ (1979).
  Although his output slowed during the 1980s, Voight received critical acclaim for his performance as a ruthless bank robber in Runaway Train (1985). During the 1990s, he most notably starred as an unscrupulous showman attorney in The Rainmaker (1997). Voight gave critically acclaimed biographical performances during the 2000s, appearing as sportscaster Howard Cosell in Ali (2001), as Nazi officer Jürgen Stroop in Uprising (2001), and as Pope John Paul II in the television miniseries of the same name (2005).
  
  wn.com/Jon_Voight
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  Laila Ali
  Laila Amaria Ali (born December 30, 1977) is a retired American professional boxer. She is the daughter of boxing legend Muhammad Ali from his third wife Veronica Porsche Ali.
  
  wn.com/Laila_Ali
• Laurence Mason
  Laurence Mason is an American actor of stage, film and television.
  A first-generation American whose parents were originally from Trinidad, Mason graduated from New York City's High School of Performing Arts. His film credits include Hackers, Parallel Sons, Joey Breaker, True Romance, New York Cop and Ali. He appeared in The Crow as the character Tin Tin, and as Mickey Haller's driver Earl in The Lincoln Lawyer.
  Mason may be best-known for his 2005 portrayal of Halpern White on the FX original series The Shield. Mason had a recurring role on Prison Break as a prisoner named Sammy. He played the role of Andre in Burn Notice episode, "Unpaid Debts". He also made numerous appearances on HBO's now defunct sketch comedy show Hardcore TV in the skit "RastaPiece Theater" as RastaMan, who does a Rasta-styled Masterpiece Theatre.
  
  wn.com/Laurence_Mason
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  Leon Robinson
  Leon Preston Robinson IV (born March 8, 1962) usually credited as simply Leon, is an American actor and singer, who began his professional career as an actor in 1983.
  Leon had a relationship with The Real Housewives of Atlanta Season 3 star Cynthia Bailey, with whom he has an 11 year old daughter, Noelle Robinson. More recently,he was in a relationship with Australian fashion model Ebony Mciver. And
  Before striking it on the big screen, Leon amassed numerous small screen credits, notably in a 1989 episode of the NBC series Midnight Caller, in which he played an athlete who falls victim to crack cocaine. He also co-starred in the 1989 ABC miniseries The Women of Brewster Place, as the boyfriend of a suburbanite (played by Robin Givens). He became a part of popular music history when he was cast as Saint Martin de Porres in Madonna's controversial 1989 music video "Like a Prayer".
  Leon's early film roles included a football teammate of Tom Cruise in All the Right Moves (1983) and as Fortune Smith, the Notre Dame-bound basketball playing co-worker of Matt Dillon, in The Flamingo Kid (1984). After his exposure in the 1989 video for the song "Like a Prayer" by Madonna, Leon's roles became more substantial. In 1993, he played a leading role in the film Cool Runnings. That same year, he co-starred as John Lithgow's henchman out to get Sylvester Stallone in Renny Harlin's Cliffhanger and followed with a turn as a disillusioned ex-jock in Above the Rim (1994). Leon also appeared as Lela Rochon's married lover in 1995's Waiting to Exhale and co-produced as well as co-starred in the 1997 romantic drama The Price of Kissing. He also starred in the movie Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored, directed by Tim Reid. baby
  
  wn.com/Leon_Robinson
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  LeVar Burton
  Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr. (born February 16, 1957), professionally known as LeVar Burton, is an American actor, director, producer, and author.
  Burton first came to prominence portraying Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley. He is also well known for his role as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as the host of the PBS children's program Reading Rainbow.
  Burton was born to American parents at the U.S. Army Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in West Germany. His mother, Erma Jean (born Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator. His father, Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and at the time was stationed at Landstuhl. Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California. Burton was raised Catholic and, at the age of thirteen, entered St. Pius X seminary in Galt, California to become a priest. He attended Christian Brothers High School and graduated in the class of 1974. He is a graduate of University of Southern California's School of Theatre.
  
  wn.com/LeVar_Burton
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  Lisa Gerrard
  Lisa Gerrard (born 12 April 1961) is an Australian musician, singer, and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with former music partner Brendan Perry.
  Since her career began in 1981, she has been involved in a wide range of projects. Gerrard received a Golden Globe Award for the music score to the film Gladiator, on which she collaborated with Hans Zimmer. In addition to singing, she is an instrumentalist for much of her work, most prolifically using the yangqin (a Chinese hammered dulcimer).
  Lisa Gerrard was born 12 April 1961 in Melbourne and grew up in the suburb of Prahran with her Irish immigrant parents. On her upbringing, she has said she grew up with "Mediterranean music blaring out of the houses" and that this influenced her music, particularly on later Dead Can Dance albums and in her solo and collaborative works.
  Gerrard's first foray into forming bands and creative music-making was the highly experimental Little Band scene. It was at one of these little band events that she first met Dead Can Dance cofounder Brendan Perry. Perry recalls, "It never occurred to me that we would one day collaborate musically together because at the time I thought her music was too avant garde. I particularly remember one song that she sang about finding a man in the park and asking her mother if she could bring him home to keep in her wardrobe as she attacked this chinese dulcimer with two bamboo sticks."
  
  wn.com/Lisa_Gerrard
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  Malcolm X
  Malcolm X ( /ˈmælkəm ˈɛks/; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Arabic: الحاجّ مالك الشباز‎), was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. Detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, antisemitism, and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.
  Malcolm X's father died—killed by white supremacists, it was rumored—when he was young, and at least one of his uncles was lynched. When he was thirteen, his mother was placed in a mental hospital, and he was placed in a series of foster homes. In 1946, at age 20, he went to prison for breaking and entering.
  In prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam and after his parole in 1952 he quickly rose to become one of its leaders. For a dozen years Malcolm X was the public face of the controversial group, but disillusionment with Nation of Islam head Elijah Muhammad led him to leave the Nation in March 1964. After a period of travel in Africa and the Middle East, he returned to the United States, where he founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. In February 1965, less than a year after leaving the Nation of Islam, he was assassinated by three members of the group.
  
  wn.com/Malcolm_X
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  Mario Van Peebles
  Mario "Chip" Cain Van Peebles (born January 15, 1957) is an American director and actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films. He is the son of filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles.
  Van Peebles was born in Mexico City, Mexico, the son of writer, director and actor Melvin Van Peebles and German actress and photographer Maria Marx. He graduated from Saint Thomas More School in Connecticut in 1974 and from Columbia University in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in economics. He is married to Chitra Sukhu Van Peebles and has five children: Makaylo, Mandela, Marley, Maya and Morgana (3 boys, 2 girls).
  Over the next 30 years, Van Peebles starred in and directed many television shows & films, including Panther, Ali, New Jack City, and an episode of Lost.
  His 2004 biopic BAADASSSSS! describes the making of his father's seminal film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Van Peebles also directed Malcolm Takes a Shot, a CBS Schoolbreak Special about an aspiring high-school basketball star whose obstacles include epilepsy and his own arrogance. Van Peebles appeared in the special in a cameo, as Malcolm's doctor.
  
  wn.com/Mario_Van_Peebles
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  Michael Bentt
  Michael A. Bentt (born September 4, 1965 in London, England) is a film and television actor and retired heavyweight boxer. Of Jamaican lineage, he was born in East Dulwich, London, but raised in the Cambria Heights section of Queens in New York City. Bentt is a one-time heavyweight champion, having held the World Boxing Organization championship from October 1993 until March 1994. As an actor he's best known for co-starring as Sonny Liston in Michael Mann's Ali and as Biggis/El Plaga in Damon Dash's indie urban hip hop classic "State Property 2".
  Bentt won four New York Golden Gloves titles and five United States Amateur Boxing Championships. After having won the bronze medal at the 1986 World Amateur Boxing Championships and the 1987 PanAmerican Games he placed a controversial second in the 1988 United States Olympic Trials to the eventual 1988 Olympic Gold Medalist, Ray Mercer.
  As both his mother and father are Jamaican citizens, he won the right to fight on the Jamaican Olympic Boxing Team after stopping the island nation's top amateur heavyweights in the 1988 Jamaican Olympic Trials. However, when confronted with the provision that he would have to relinquish his United States citizenship in order to accompany the Jamaican team to Seoul,he refused. Bentt is regarded as the most decorated boxer in the history of American amateur boxing never to have competed on a United States Olympic boxing team.
  
  wn.com/Michael_Bentt
• Michael Michele
  Michael Michele (born August 30, 1966) is an American film and television actress. She played Dr. Cleo Finch on the medical drama ER and Det. Rene Sheppard on the police procedural Homicide: Life on the Street. Her films include the Academy Award-nominated film Ali.
  Michael Michele was born Michael Michele Williams in Evansville, Indiana, the elder of two daughters. Her father is an entrepreneur and business consultant. She received her masculine first name by being named after her mother's best friend, Michael Ann. In high school, Michele was active on the volleyball, basketball, and track teams. She has a son J. Brandon (born December 21, 2004) with former boyfriend Jimmy Rodriguez.
  Michele has appeared in music videos by R&B singer Freddie Jackson. Michele is known for her role as Dr. Cleo Finch on the television series ER from 1999–2002 and her role as Det. Rene Sheppard on the final season of Homicide: Life on the Street. She also had a starring role in the short-lived television series Kevin Hill and a recurring role in New York Undercover. Michele played the role of Veronica Porsche Ali in the 2001 film Ali. She appeared in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that aired in early 2007. She also appeared in two episodes of the fourth season of House as a doctor who had previously worked with the CIA. In 2009 Michele appeared in the Hallmark Channel original movie Relative Stranger with fellow ER cast member Eriq La Salle.
  
  wn.com/Michael_Michele
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  Muhammad Ali
  Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; January 17, 1942) is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist. Considered a cultural icon, Ali was both idolized and vilified.
  Originally known as Cassius Clay, Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964, subsequently converting to Sunni Islam in 1975, and more recently practicing Sufism.^{[clarification needed]} In 1967, three years after Ali had won the World Heavyweight Championship, he was publicly vilified for his refusal to be conscripted into the U.S. military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. Ali stated, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong... No Viet Cong ever called me nigger" – one of the more telling remarks of the era.
  Widespread protests against the Vietnam War had not yet begun, but with that one phrase, Ali articulated the reason to oppose the war for a generation of young Americans, and his words served as a touchstone for the racial and antiwar upheavals that would rock the 1960s. Ali's example inspired Martin Luther King Jr. – who had been reluctant to alienate the Johnson Administration and its support of the civil rights agenda – to voice his own opposition to the war for the first time.
  
  wn.com/Muhammad_Ali
• Mykelti Williamson
  Michael T. "Mykelti" Williamson (born March 4, 1960) is an American actor best known for his role as Benjamin Buford (Bubba) Blue in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, as Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith in the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful crime drama Boomtown, and recently for appearing as the head of CTU for season 8 of the hit TV series 24.
  Williamson was born on March 4, 1960 in St. Louis, Missouri. He is the son of Elaine, a certified public accountant, and a father who was an Air Force Non-Commissioned Officer.
  Williamson began performing at the age of nine. Along with acting, he also danced as an alternate member of The Lockers troupe on Soul Train along with Fred Berry (star of TV sitcom What's Happening!!). At age nine, Williamson relocated to Los Angeles with his family. While in high school he excelled in athletics, particularly football and basketball. However, acting was his first love and he no longer pursued sports.
  Williamson studied television/film at Los Angeles City College. He audited acting classes at USC under the tutelage of Dr. Frank X. Ford. Williamson later transferred to Gene Evans Motion Picture School in San Jose and earned his certificate in Cinematography/ Film Production.
  
  wn.com/Mykelti_Williamson
• Nona Gaye
  Nona Marvisa Gaye (born September 4, 1974) is an American singer, former fashion model, and screen actress. The daughter of soul music legend Marvin Gaye and granddaughter of jazz great Slim Gaillard, she began her career as a vocalist in the early 1990s. As an actress, she is best known for her portrayal of Zee in the science fiction films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
  Gaye is the only daughter of singer Marvin Gaye and wife Janis Gaye. She is Marvin's second child – her brother Marvin III (sometimes referred to as Marvin Gaye, Jr.) was from Gaye's first marriage while her younger brother Frankie was born within a year after her. As a baby, Nona was brought out on stage by her father during a concert. At eight, she formally introduced her father on Soul Train during a tribute episode to the singer.
  Gaye released her first album, Love for the Future, on Atlantic Records in 1992, a month after her 18th birthday. The album featured the top 20 hit "I'm Overjoyed" as well as "The Things That We All Do For Love". The following year, Gaye was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People. She signed to Ford Modeling Agency in 1994, and became the new face of Armani.
  
  wn.com/Nona_Gaye
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  Odessa Grady Clay
  Odessa Lee Clay (née Grady) (February 12, 1917 – August 20, 1994) was the mother of three-time World Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali and Rudolph Valentino Clay, now Rahman Ali and grandmother of Laila Ali. She married Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr. in the 1930s and worked for some time as a household domestic to help support her young children.
  She was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky, one of six children of John Lewis Grady and Birdie B. Morehead. Her paternal grandfather was a white Irishman named Abe Grady, who emigrated to the United States from Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, soon after the Civil War and married a daughter of Lewis and Amanda J. "Mandy" Walker of Todd County, Kentucky. Her maternal grandfather, Tom Morehead, was the son of a white Morehead and a slave named Dinah. Morehead served in the 122nd USCT.
  Odessa Clay grew up in a segregated society in which African Americans were denied many of the rights and privileges of white Americans. African Americans faced discrimination in finding jobs. Clay's parents separated when she was young, and her mother worked as a domestic, taking care of the household chores and the young children of a white family. Clay was raised partly by her aunt. When she became an adolescent, she dropped out of school and also found work as a domestic. Then, when she was sixteen years old, she met twenty-year-old Cassius, whom everyone referred to as "Cash". They soon married and settled into their own house in Louisville, Kentucky. The Clays' marriage was troubled. Ali told boxing promoters, "She's afraid of him".
  
  wn.com/Odessa_Grady_Clay
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  Paul Rodriguez
  Paul Rodriguez (born January 19, 1955) is a Mexican-American stand-up comedian and actor.
  Rodriguez was born in Culiacán, Sinaloa, México to Mexican agriculture ranchers.. His family migrated to East Los Angeles, where he enlisted in the military; he was stationed in Iceland and Duluth, Minnesota. His son, Paul Rodriguez Jr., is a professional skateboarder nicknamed P-Rod.
  Rodriguez considered becoming a lawyer, but instead went into comedy. His first shot at national fame, the ABC sitcom a.k.a. Pablo, was canceled after seven episodes.
  In 1988, Rodriguez replaced Bob Eubanks as host of The Newlywed Game. The show lasted one season before being canceled, During his Tenure as host of the Newlywed Game, The show began using the 1958 hit record Book of Love by The Monotones as the theme song.
  Rodriguez has starred in several feature films including, D.C. Cab, Born in East L.A., Tortilla Soup, Rat Race, and Ali. He directed and starred in the film A Million to Juan. Rodriguez has also performed voice-over roles on King of the Hill, Dora the Explorer and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
  
  wn.com/Paul_Rodriguez
• Pieter Bourke
  Pieter Bourke is an Australian composer, keyboardist, percussionist and audio engineer. He has recorded several projects with ex-Dead Can Dance founding member Lisa Gerrard, and was a touring member of Dead Can Dance's 1996 Spiritchaser tour. He also collaborated with Australian musician David Thrussell (alias Black Lung), first as part of the latter's band Snog, then just the two of them under the project name Soma. More recently, he formed the Dub Reggae outift Secret Masters with fellow Australian Brian Westbrook. Bourke and Gerrard received two shared Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Score, in 2000 for The Insider (1999), and in 2002 for Ali (2001).
  Pieter Bourke began his career in 1988 with the Australian band Eden. Consisting of Sean Bowley (vocals, guitar), Ross Healy (bass) and Bourke (keyboards, rhythm programming and percussion), Eden performed regularly in Melbourne’s alternative scene beginning in 1988. The Light Between Worlds EP was released in 1989 on the Scottish label Nightshift Records. This was supported by the release of a 7” single, Searching For Angels Hands, which broadened Eden’s audience in Australia through a performance on the national music television programme Countdown Revolution.
  
  wn.com/Pieter_Bourke
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  Rahman Ali
  Rahman Ali (born July 18, 1943) was born as Rudolph Valentino Clay and was known as Rudy Clay. Rahman Ali was a heavyweight boxer.
  Rahman Ali is the son of Odessa Clay and younger brother of Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali). Rahman and Muhammad started boxing in a Louisville, Kentucky amateur boxing league. While his brother went to the 1960 Olympics Rahman was not selected and remained amateur until February 25, 1964, the night his brother won one of his heavyweight titles over Sonny Liston. As a professional boxer Rahman won 14 bouts, lost 3, and had one draw. In his career he knocked out seven opponents and was only knocked out once. After back to back losses ending with Rahman being knocked out by Jack O'Halloran he retired from professional boxing.
  
  wn.com/Rahman_Ali
• Robert Lipsyte
  Robert Lipsyte (January 16, 1938) is an American sports journalist and author. Lipsyte is a member of the Board of Contributors for USA Today's Forum Page, part of the newspaper’s Opinion section.
  Robert Micheal Lipsyte was born on January 16, 1938 in New York. He grew up in Rego Park, a neighborhood in the New York city borough of Queens. Lipsyte’s father was a school principal, his mother a teacher. Young Robert devoted his childhood to books rather than sports. Instead of sharing a game of catch with his father, the two often visited the library. Robert's son, Sam Lipsyte, is also an author and teacher at Columbia University in New York.
  In the first chapter of his 1975 book SportsWorld, which considers the role of sports in American culture, Lipsyte points out that he did not even attend his first major league baseball game until he was thirteen years old, despite the fact that there were three major league teams in New York: the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers. Lipsyte says he was “profoundly disappointed” with his experience at the game and so went to only one more game “as a paying customer.” His third major league game was as a sports reporter for The New York Times.
  
  wn.com/Robert_Lipsyte
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  Roger Ebert
  Roger Joseph Ebert ( /ˈiːbərt/; born June 18, 1942) is an American journalist, film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
  Ebert is known for his film review column (appearing in the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, and later online) and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The Movies, all of which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel. After Siskel's death in 1999, Ebert teamed with Richard Roeper for the television series Ebert & Roeper & the Movies, which began airing in 2000. Although his name remained in the title, Ebert did not appear on the show after mid-2006 after he suffered post-surgical complications related to thyroid cancer, leaving him unable to speak. Ebert ended his association with the show in July 2008, but in February 2009 he stated that he and Roeper would continue their work on a new show. Ebert's current show, Ebert Presents: At the Movies, premiered on January 21, 2011, with Ebert contributing a review voiced by someone else in a brief segment called "Roger's Office".
  
  wn.com/Roger_Ebert
• Ron Silver
  Ronald Arthur "Ron" Silver (July 2, 1946 – March 15, 2009) was an American actor, director, producer, radio host and political activist.
  Silver was born in New York City, the son of May (née Zimelman), a substitute teacher, and Irving Roy Silver, a clothing sales executive. Silver was raised Jewish on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and attended The East Side Hebrew Institute ("ESHI") and then Stuyvesant High School.
  He went on to graduate from SUNY at Buffalo with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Chinese, and received a Master's Degree in Chinese History from St. John's University in New York and the College of Chinese Culture in Taiwan. He also attended Columbia University's Graduate School of International Affairs and studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio.^{[citation needed]}
  Silver made his stage debut starring in El Grande de Coca Cola in 1974. Producers Richard Flanzer and Roy Silver (no relation) opened it at the famed Whiskey A Go Go on the Sunset Strip in L.A. The production ran for more than a year. Silver and his co-star, actor Jeff Goldblum, were discovered by Hollywood Film Agents during this show's historic run.
  
  wn.com/Ron_Silver
• Sam Cooke
  Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and influence on the modern world of music. His contribution in pioneering soul music led to the rise of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and popularized the likes of Otis Redding and James Brown.
  Cooke had 29 top-40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1964. Major hits like "You Send Me", "A Change Is Gonna Come", "Cupid", "Chain Gang", "Wonderful World", and "Twistin' the Night Away" are some of his most popular songs. Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the American Civil Rights Movement.
  
  wn.com/Sam_Cooke
• Sonny Liston
  Charles L. "Sonny" Liston (Unknown – December 30, 1970) was an American professional boxer known for his toughness, punching power and intimidating appearance, who became World Heavyweight Champion in 1962 by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round. Liston failed to live up to his fearsome reputation in an unsuccessful defense of the title against Muhammad Ali; underworld connections and an early death—along with his unrecorded date of birth—added to the enigma. He is ranked number 15 in Ring Magazine's 100 Greatest Punchers of All Time.
  There is no record of Liston's birth, he once gave an age compatible with his being born in 1928, but is said to be absent from the 1930 United States Census; it has been suggested he may not have known what year he was born. Liston settled on a date of birth of May 8, 1932 for official purposes but by the time he won the world title an aged appearance added credence to rumors that he was several years older than claimed.
  
  wn.com/Sonny_Liston
• Veronica Porsche Ali
  Veronica Porsche Ali is an American actress and the former wife of boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
  Porsche was born in Louisiana on December 16, 1955 to Ethel and Horace Porche and is of Louisiana Creole descent. She attended Holy Rosary Catholic boarding school in Lafayette, Louisiana before moving with her parents to Echo Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. She graduated from Belmont High School in Los Angeles in 1973 and attended the University of Southern California (USC), majoring in Pre-Medicine.
  She was the third wife of American boxer Muhammad Ali, and is the mother of his two daughters, actress and undefeated professional boxer Laila Ali and author Hana Yasmeen Ali. They were married at the Presidential Compound in N'Sele according to the Islamic tradition.^{[citation needed]}. Ali and Porsche began a relationship in 1974 while in Kinshasa, Zaire when Porsche was 18 years old. Porsche was one of the four poster girls who had promoted the Rumble in the Jungle fight in Zaire versus George Foreman which led to erroneous reports that she was a professional model before meeting Ali. Porsche and Ali were then married in Los Angeles in the summer of 1977. They divorced in December 1986.
  
  wn.com/Veronica_Porsche_Ali
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  Will Smith
  Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood. Smith has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and has won multiple Grammy Awards.
  In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince. In 1990, his popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the popular television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show ran for nearly six years (1990–1996) on NBC and has been syndicated consistently on various networks since then. In the mid-1990s, Smith moved from television to film, and ultimately starred in numerous blockbuster films. He is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office and the only one to have eight consecutive films in which he starred open at #1 spot in the domestic box office tally.
  
  wn.com/Will_Smith
• William Goldenberg
  William Goldenberg is a film editor with more than twenty credits since 1992. He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Film Editing for the films Seabiscuit (2003) and The Insider (1999). He has also received nominations for nine other editing-related awards.
  Goldenberg has had an extended, notable collaboration with the director Michael Mann.
  Goldenberg has been elected to membership in the American Cinema Editors.
  The director and release date of each film is indicated in parenthesis.
  
  
  
  wn.com/William_Goldenberg
• Zaa Nkweta
  Zaa Nkweta is a Canadian actor, journalist and television presenter. Nkweta has a BA from McGill University and a postgraduate journalism diploma from Rhodes University. He is a graduate of Ashbury College in Rockliffe Park, Ottawa and attended The National Theatre School of Canada, training under Pierre Lefevre and Dame Peggy Ashcroft. He has acted in numerous feature films and television shows. His big budget credits include Ali and Beyond Borders.
  Nkweta hosted the first South African literary television program Between the Lines in 1999. He has conducted communications workshops with The South African Department of Trade and Industry, BHP Billiton and Interbrand Services. Stories that Nkweta has presented that have won awards include "Crude" which won an SAB Environmental Award of Merit in 2001, and "Animals and The Law" which won an International Genesis Media Award in 2005.
  In 2001 he became the anchorman and field reporter for South Africa's highly acclaimed investigative TV program Carte Blanche (TV series). Nkweta also anchored the pan-African version of the show broadcast to 44 African countries and the United States. Highlights at Carte Blanche (TV series) include stories covering the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, Medical Fraud in Johannesburg, Oil sabotage in Nigeria, Oil corruption in Equatorial Guinea, and The Taiping Four Gorillas of Cameroon. Nkweta has interviewed The President of Equatorial Guinea, The Chairman of De Beers Mines, Nicky Oppenheimer, and The Secretary General of the African Union (2001–2002) Amara Essy. He has an interest in the arts, having interviewed several notable actors such as Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron and Will Smith.
  
  wn.com/Zaa_Nkweta

Ali (2001)

Actors

• Giancarlo Esposito
• Jada Pinkett-smith
• Ron Silver
• Laurence Mason
• Charles Shufford
• Michael Bentt
• David Haines
• Michael Michele
• Eddie Bo Smith Jr.
• Jeffrey Wright
• Jamie Foxx
• Jon Voight
• Nona Gaye
• Paul Rodriguez
• Will Smith

Director

• Michael Mann

• Rappel à l'ordre
• Génération Scarface
• L'impasse
• Observe
• Golden Boy
• Oraison funèbre
• La vérité reste la vérité
• Chaos et harmonie
• Préviens les autres
• Langage vénimeux
• Le chant des sirènes
• Sang froid
• Tolérance zéro
• Amour

• Intro
• I Got This
• Crucial
• Ore-Ore-O
• No
• Boughetto (feat. Murphy Lee)
• 360
• Wiggle Wiggle
• Drop Top
• Collection Plate
• Passin' Me By
• Bitch
• Beast
• Cool as Hell

• timeline:
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002
• 2001