Trumbull can refer to

• Trumbull County, Ohio
  • Trumbull Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio
• Trumbull, Connecticut
• Trumbull, Nebraska
• Trumbull College, a residential college of Yale University
• Fort Trumbull, Connecticut
• Mount Trumbull Wilderness in Arizona

People[link]

• Douglas Trumbull (born 1942) - American film director
• Henry Clay Trumbull (1830-1903) - American clergyman and author
• James Hammond Trumbull (1821-1897) - American philologist
• John Trumbull (1756-1843) - American painter
• John Trumbull (1750-1831) - American poet
• John H. Trumbull (1873-1961) - Governor of Connecticut
• Jonathan Trumbull (1710-1785) - Governor of both the Colony and State of Connecticut
• Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (1740-1809) - Second Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and Governor of Connecticut
• Joseph Trumbull (1782-1861) - American lawyer, grandson of Jonathan, (1710-85)
• Lyman Trumbull (1813-1896) - American jurist and politician
• William Trumbull (1639-1716) - English statesman

Fictional

• Thomas Trumbull, a member of the Black Widowers, a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Sir William Trumbull

Sir William Trumbull (8 September 1639 – 14 December 1716) was an English statesman who held high office as a member of the First Whig Junto.

Biography[link]

Trumbull was born at Easthampstead Park in Berkshire, the son and heir of William Trumbull (1594–1668) and grandson of William Trumbull the Jacobean period diplomat.^[1] He was educated at Wokingham School and St John's College, Oxford. In 1667 he was awarded a Doctorate of Civil Law and elected to a fellowship at All Souls. In the same year he was entered at the Middle Temple, and was admitted an advocate in Doctors' Commons on 28 April 1668. He began practising in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts.

In 1683 he was appointed Judge Advocate of the Fleet and sailed in Lord Dartmouth’s expedition to evacuate the British colony at Tangier, where he was to act as commissioner for settling the leases of the houses between the King and the inhabitants. Samuel Pepys, who was also on the expedition, was unimpressed — “Strange to see how surprised and troubled Dr. Trumbull shows himself at this new work put on him of a judge-advocate; how he cons over the law-martial and what weak questions he asks me about it.” Later Pepys calls him “a man of the meanest mind as to courage that ever was born.”

In 1684, the King considered Trumbull as a possible Secretary of State, but he was eventually offered the office of Secretary of War in Ireland, which he turned down. Nevertheless, he was knighted on 21 November 1684, and the following February was made Clerk of the Deliveries of the Ordnance; he entered Parliament as MP for East Looe 1685–1687. However, Charles II died a few days later and Trumbull had to relinquish the clerkship when he was sent by James II, unwillingly, as envoy extraordinary to France. Trumbull was an odd choice for the post, being a zealous opponent of Roman Catholicism, and did much to benefit the condition of the English Protestants in France after Edict of Fontainebleau. In 1686 he was recalled from Paris, but was instead appointed Ambassador at Constantinople, where he remained until 1691. He was also made a Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company.

On 3 May 1694 he was appointed a Commissioner of the Treasury, and a year later was made a Privy Counsellor and appointed Secretary of State for the Northern Department. However, he was unhappy in the post, and resigned it on 2 December 1697. He then retired from public life.

Trumbull was a friend of both John Dryden and Alexander Pope.^[2] Dryden records, in the postscript to his translation of Virgil, that “if the last Aeneid shine amongst its fellows, it is owing to the commands of Sir William Trumbull, who recommended it as his favourite to my care.” It was Trumbull who, admiring Pope’s translation of the “Epistle of Sarpedon” from the Iliad urged him to translate the whole of Homer's works, and Pope’s “Spring” was dedicated to him.

In 1670, Trumbull married Elizabeth (or Katherine), daughter of Sir Charles Cotterell,^[3] Master of the Ceremonies; she died in 1704, they having had no children. In 1706, he married Judith Alexander, daughter of the Earl of Stirling. They had two children, Judith (1707–1708) and William (1708–1760).

Trumbull died in 1716, and is buried at Easthampstead.

His son William had an only daughter, who became the wife of the Hon. Martin Sandys. She was thus the ancestress of the later marquesses of Downshire.

Letters[link]

Many of Trumbull's letters are in the British Library and in the Record Office, London.^[4] Trumbull was on friendly terms with Pierre Bayle and was a mentor to the young Henry St. John, later Viscount Bolingbroke, who may have met his great friend, Pope, through Trumbull.^[5]

Notes[link]

1. ^  "Trumbull, William (d.1635)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 
2. ^ G. Sherburn, "Letters of Alexander Pope, Chiefly to Sir Wiliam Trumbull," Review of English Studies, 9 (1958), 388–406.
3. ^ "Elizabeth (or Katherine)" (O'Connor 2009)
4. ^ Chisholm 1911.
5. ^ "The Correspondence of Henry St. John and Sir William Trumbull, 1698–1710," ed. Adrian C. Lashmore-Davies, Eighteenth-Century Life 32, no. 3 (2008), 23–179.

References[link]

• O'Connor, Mary E. (May 2009) [2004]. "Dormer , Anne (1648?–1695)". Dormer , Anne (1648?–1695) (online ed.). Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/ref:odnb/66726. 
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Trumball, Sir William". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Further reading[link]

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs ^{[self-published source?][better source needed]}
•  Sidney Lee, ed. (1899). "Trumbull, William". Dictionary of National Biography. 57. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 265–267. 
• David Nash Ford. Royal Berkshire History. http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/wtrumbull3.html. 

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. (June 2011)

Douglas Trumbull
Douglas Trumbull at FMX 2012
Born	(1942-04-08) April 8, 1942 (age 70) Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation	Director, producer, writer, special effects supervisor

Douglas Huntley Trumbull (born April 8, 1942, Los Angeles) is an American film director, special effects supervisor, and inventor. He contributed to, or was responsible for, the special photographic effects of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner and The Tree of Life, and directed the movies Silent Running and Brainstorm.^[1]

Early days[link]

Douglas is the son of Donald Trumbull who created visual effects for the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz as well as later movies including Silent Running and Star Wars.

Doug was a creative talent even in the 6th grade. My first recollection of him was one morning in Inglewood, California when he arrived early in Mrs. Essex's class, and had draped a virtually invisible antenna wire out the window, so that he could surreptitiously listen to his crystal set in class. At recess, I introduced myself, and we became fast friends. In the 1960s he worked in the office of my father's electrical contracting firm, G & M Electric Company, to put himself through El Camino Junior College. -- Larry Dighera

Major projects[link]

1960s[link]

Douglas Trumbull's early work was at Graphic Films in Los Angeles. The small animation and graphic arts studio produced a film about spaceflight for the New York World's Fair. Trumbull, the son of a mechanical engineer and an artist, worked at Graphic Films as an illustrator and airbrush artist. The spaceflight film caught the attention of director Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick hired director Con Pederson from Graphic Films, and Trumbull then cold-called Kubrick after obtaining the director's home phone number from Pederson. Kubrick hired Trumbull for the production of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Trumbull's first task was to create the dozens of animations seen in the data display screens in the Aries moon shuttle and the Discovery.^[2] They looked like computer graphics, but they were created by photographing and animating reproductions of charts and graphs from technical publications. Trumbull initially created the shots using a number of Rube Goldberg–like contraptions he built with gears and motors ordered from a scientific equipment supply house. Kubrick gave the young effects technician creative freedom and encouragement: "He would say...'What do you need to do it?' and I would have complete carte blanche, which was wild as a young guy," Trumbull recalled. "I was 23-24 when I started the movie, and was 25 by the time I was doing the Star Gate. He would say, 'What do you need?' and I'd say, 'Well, I need to go into town and buy some weird bearings and some stuff' and he would send me off to town in his Bentley, with a driver, into London. It was great!"

Trumbull's responsibilities and talents grew as the production continued, and he became one of four special effects supervisors on the film (the others were fellow Graphic Films alumnus Con Pederson, along with Tom Howard and Wally Veevers.) Trumbull's most memorable contribution was the development of the slit-scan photography process, used in the "Stargate" sequence. "...I just happened to be in the right place at the right time... We were struggling with the Star Gate. Nobody knew what a Star Gate was; but, I came up with some ideas that I didn't even know at the time were based on some things I was learning as a young guy about street photography and weird photographic techniques..." Working on 2001 hooked Trumbull on the concept of producing immersive film experiences on huge screens - ironically, at a time when the industry was moving towards the multiplexing of theaters with smaller screens.

Although Trumbull's association with Kubrick was a huge boost for his career, he swore afterwards that he'd "never work for someone else again," in part because Kubrick "was a hell of a taskmaster...his level of quality-control bordered on perfectionism."

Trumbull was often incorrectly credited in print as being the sole special-effects creator for 2001. Whenever this happened, he usually received a call shortly thereafter from an irritated Kubrick. Though this created a strained relationship for many years, Trumbull said after Kubrick's death that Kubrick "was a genius," someone whom Trumbull missed terribly.

1970-1974[link]

Having returned to Hollywood, Trumbull set up his own company and subsequently bid on the job to produce special effects for the science-fiction film The Andromeda Strain. ("I was a young guy and very naive," he later recalled, "And I seriously underbid the job - I had no idea what these things were supposed to cost. I nearly went bankrupt as a result!") Trumbull and associate James Shourt produced dozens of shots, including the "electron microscope" pictures of the Andromeda organism and various on-screen readouts. Though many of these looked like computer graphics, they were created using techniques Trumbull had used for 2001. Author Michael Crichton and director Robert Wise were much impressed by Trumbull's work.

Trumbull's participation and success on "Andromeda" set him up to direct the 1971 film Silent Running, with a script based on his original treatment: America's last great forests are preserved and sent into space inside huge geodesic domes, in the hope that one day they can be returned to an earth that can once again sustain them. When orders are issued by faceless bureaucrats to abandon and destroy the domes, the ship's botanist (Bruce Dern) rebels and takes over the ship, aided by three anthropomorphic "drone" robots. He steers the ship away from the fleet and hides among the rings of Saturn, out of contact (silent running), attempting to keep the forest in good health, alone except for the drones who follow him around like pets.

Silent Running was produced by Universal on a shoestring budget of one million dollars, one-tenth the budget of 2001. The film used a number of special effects techniques that Trumbull had helped develop. The spacecraft interiors were shot aboard a mothballed aircraft carrier, which lent its name to the movie spacecraft Valley Forge. Trumbull was not originally slated to direct, but as the start of production loomed he became the obvious choice. (Other newcomers included the script writing team of Deric Washburn and Michael Cimino, who would later collaborate on The Deer Hunter, along with writer Steven Bochco of Hill Street Blues and LA Law fame.)

When Silent Running was released, insiders were astonished that the finished film had been produced for so little money. Lead actor Bruce Dern compared Trumbull's creative vision to that of Alfred Hitchcock, with whom Dern had also worked. Trumbull was seen as one of Hollywood's up and coming young directors.

Although a critical success, Silent Running was a flop at the box office. Trumbull recalled that "It was just a great experience for me as a film maker, but I didn’t know that I was part of an experiment by Universal Studios . . . to see if it was possible to have a movie survive on word of mouth alone without an advertising campaign." It was not, but Silent Running's environmental message struck a chord, and the movie has since became a cult classic.

After Silent Running, Trumbull developed a number of movie projects, but a series of misfortunes and bad luck kept them from getting beyond the initial development stage. One project nearly did get into production, and was already being cast when it was abruptly scuttled - the investor had decided to abandon the movie business and build a Las Vegas casino instead. Trumbull described this period of his career as "development hell." Unable to live on development fees alone and needing money, Trumbull returned to creating special effects, including some uncredited work using blue screen techniques on the 1974 film The Towering Inferno, a huge commercial hit.

1975-1980[link]

In 1975, Trumbull turned down an offer to provide the effects for George Lucas' Star Wars due to other commitments, but in 1977 he contributed effects to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In late 1978, Trumbull's Future General Corporation, a research/ special effects house that was funded by Gulf + Western and Paramount Pictures, was offered the job to produce the special effects for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Trumbull, already deeply involved in Close Encounters, refused, wanting instead to focus his efforts on his patented Showscan process, a high-speed, large-format movie process that provided unprecedented visual clarity. Paramount awarded the contract to effects house Robert Abel and Associates, and in a move seen by some as payback for Trumbull's refusal to take on the project, all but shuttered Future General.

Abel had produced many high-end, visually advanced commercials for clients such as 7-Up, but it soon became apparent that their choice of technology, which featured software-controlled camera rigs and graphics imaging systems very advanced for the day, simply couldn't scale up to the volume of material required. In August 1978, with rumors of an impending meltdown at Abel swirling, Trumbull approached Paramount offering to step in and do the effects with partner Richard Yuricich. Paramount declined, hoping that Abel could still work a miracle.

Early in 1979, and with principal photography nearly finished and a December release date looming, Abel was fired after failing to produce even a few seconds of usable footage. Paramount approached Trumbull to take over effects production, which Trumbull did after securing an agreement to be released from his contract at Paramount upon completion of the film. "At the time," he recalled, "I think they would have entertained anyone who could have pulled them out of the jam." Trumbull reassembled his Future General team, rebuilt his facility which Paramount had nearly gutted, and with a mere five months to create the hundreds of effects shots needed, worked virtually around the clock for months. His team made the date, but their in-house battle cry became "...crop it, flop it, or drop it!" (That is, re-use part of an existing scene, take an existing scene and "flop" it over so that a right-to-left shot of the ship now plays the other way, or "drop" the shot from the script altogether.)

The model of the Enterprise, already built by the time Trumbull's team took over, proved especially tricky. While the model of Discovery in "2001" was over 50 feet long and featured a wealth of detail (from parts gleaned from, among other things, hundreds of plastic model tank kits), the model of the Enterprise was only seven feet in length, which severely limited the photographic possibilities. Other compromises had to be overcome. Trumbull had several ideas for unconventional effects - such as a modified slitscan technique to produce fantastic streaks when the Enterprise went into warp drive, but many had to be shelved due to time constraints. Trumbull also made several contributions to the story line, in collaboration once again with his Andromeda Strain director Robert Wise.

1980-1990s[link]

In 1981 Trumbull directed the special effects for the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner.^[3] By this time Trumbull had all but sworn off doing special effects for other directors, but was lured to the project by the opportunity to work with Scott, and a chance to create something other than sterile, grey and white spacecraft. "One of the things that appealed to me about the project," Trumbull recalled in an interview in Cinefex magazine, "was that it was NOT a space movie. I'm just real tired of doing spaceships against star backgrounds." Indeed, the iconic images of a polluted, dystopian Los Angeles, looking more like an oil refinery than a metropolis, and complete with building-sized electronic billboards and a bulbous blimp circling overhead advertising "Off World" job opportunities became the film's visual trademarks. (Despite the experience and professionalism of Trumbull's disciples, not everything went smoothly. According to Cinefex magazine, a young model maker was giving his girlfriend a tour of the effects shop, and he noticed that a large model of a building being photographed in the "smoke room" - a sealed room specially constructed to provide a smoky atmosphere - was burning fiercely. Thinking this was just another effect, he mentioned it in passing to a supervisor, who immediately grabbed an extinguisher and ran to put out the fire. The plastic and fiberglass model had been mounted too close to a powerful light which eventually set it ablaze.)

Trumbull did not complete Blade Runner, (David Dryer took over as special effects supervisor) leaving the film as agreed about halfway through to concentrate on pre-production for his next directing effort, Brainstorm, a story of two brilliant scientists who develop a revolutionary device to record and vicariously experience other people's feelings and perceptions, a device the military tries to steal for its own purposes.

Brainstorm was to be a showcase for Trumbull's "Showscan" process, which utilized special cameras and projectors to capture and project 70 mm film at 60 frames per second. At the last minute the Showscan process was not used, because theatre owners balked at the idea of installing expensive new projection equipment. The film was shot conventionally at 24 frames per second on 35mm film, though Trumbull continued his process of shooting effects work in 70mm. "In movies people often do flashbacks and point-of-view shots as a gauzy, mysterious, distant kind of image," Trumbull recalled, "And I wanted to do just the opposite, which was to make the material of the mind even more real and high-impact than 'reality'".

The film was nearly scuttled by the mysterious drowning death of Natalie Wood during a break in production. MGM immediately shut down production and initially wanted to dump Brainstorm (and collect the insurance on the unfinished film). Trumbull argued that the film could easily be finished - Natalie Wood's performance was already "in the can" and only a few scenes would have to be reshot. Lawyers and insurance companies battled over whether to even complete the film. The movie was finally finished two years later when the insurance company supplied the money to finish production. Trumbull had pushed all the while for the studio to finish and release his movie. "I can do this," Trumbull recalled in an interview with Greencine, "I've got all the coverage...All you need to do is let me in the editing room and I'll show you. They said, 'No, you can't come back, we don't want you in the cutting room, you can't finish this movie.'" Because of his determination to finish his film, Trumbull became "persona non grata" at MGM in the process. Eventually released on a small number of screens and with little publicity (though Trumbull recalled in the Greencine interview that the film became "Quote, Natalie Wood's last film, unquote,") Brainstorm was well received critically but a commercial failure at the box office.

Exhausted from his battles with the Hollywood system ("The movie business is so totally screwed up that I just don't have the energy to invest three or four years in a feature film,"), Trumbull retreated to the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, to escape "the lawyers, the insurance agents, the creeps", redirecting his career away from traditional Hollywood projects and concentrating instead on developing new technology for movie production, and for the exhibition industry and theme-park rides, such as the Back to the Future Ride at Universal Studios Theme Park. Until recently, Trumbull's Showscan technology could be seen on a theme-park type ride at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas.

In 1994 Trumbull was briefly a Vice Chairman of IMAX Corporation and President of its Ridefilm division through his involvement in the simultaneous combination and takeover of the Canadian based private company Imax Corp. and Trumbull Co.

2000-Present[link]

Trumbull has spent nearly two decades in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts, starting and running a series of companies involved in effects production and innovation.

In 2010, Trumbull leveraged social media, after a fashion, when he posted a video on Vimeo and YouTube showcasing an original invention aimed at capping the BP oil spill. Although the video "went viral" almost immediately, Trumbull never heard from BP or any of the government agencies struggling to contain the spill, which left him bemused and mildly annoyed. "I didn't do it with the hope of compensation," he later said, "I did it because I thought it was the moral thing to do."

After nearly thirty years away from Hollywood, Trumbull contributed to special effects work on Terrence Malick's 2011 film The Tree of Life. Reportedly Malick, a Trumbull fan, approached him about the effects work and mentioned that he did not like the look of computer-generated effects. Reportedly Trumbull asked, "Why not do it the way we did it on 2001?" Recent compositing programs such as Nuke allow practical scenes shot on film to be combined with fewer of the headaches of "traditional" effects work, such as shooting multiple camera passes on a single piece of film, matte passes, and the like. Trumbull eventually signed on as special effects consultant, working with the film's effects supervisor, Dan Glass. Many of the "organic" effects processes used in "2001" and "Close Encounters" were resurrected, such as photographing chemical interactions in petri dishes and releasing paints into water tanks. "It was a working environment that's almost impossible to come by these days," Trumbull told The Guardian newspaper in July 2011. "Terry wanted to create the opportunity for the unexpected to occur before the camera, then make something of that. He didn't want to use a very stringent design process, he wanted the unexpected phenomenon to occur – and use that."

In March 2011, director James Cameron announced plans to film his next "Avatar"-type 3D feature in a digital version of Showscan. Cameron has been pushing for movie theaters to adopt higher frame-rates to maintain the 3D effect during scenes involving high-speed motion (like explosions.) At 24 frames per second the 3D effect breaks down, while at 48 or 60 frames per second it is maintained. 60 frames per second is difficult to achieve with conventional film because of the stress on the medium itself; recording 60 frames per second using a digital camera is commonplace. Cameron and Trumbull have been friends for years, and it appears that Trumbull's contribution to a heightened theater experience may finally see its day, thanks to the influence of powerful directors like Cameron and Peter Jackson—nearly 30 years after its invention.

Douglas Trumbull (right) discussing frame rates with Ray Feeney (left) and Bill Desowitz

Now approaching his 70th birthday, Trumbull maintains a workshop and studio on his property in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts (an area hampered, ironically, by lack of high-speed internet access). He continues the development of new tools for film makers, and is also spearheading a project to photograph UFOs. He often travels to film screenings and seminars and is enjoying a resurgence of his celebrity among film and visual effects enthusiasts. Trumbull seems grateful for the recognition and reverence accorded by his followers. "They really keep me going," he told The Australian newspaper in February 2011. "They reinforce some enthusiasm about my work. It's very hard to keep me going, because the setbacks [were] really tragic and difficult." As of February 2012, Trumbull is working on a new science-fiction project that he claims is "way beyond anything that Peter Jackson and Jim Cameron have been doing,"^[4] which will probably be shot with a camera capable of recording 120 frames per second, twice the speed of its ancestor, Showscan.

Honors[link]

Trumbull has been nominated for Academy Awards on five occasions, has received the American Society of Cinematographer’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and was a 2010 inductee to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.^[5]

Trumbull received the International Press Academy's Tesla award in December 2011, named in honor of Nikola Tesla, an inventor, scientist and engineer, whom, Trumbull noted dryly in a runway interview, "Died penniless, after lots of people took credit for his work."^[6][7] Trumbull also received the Gordon E. Sawyer Award in February 2012, an honorary Academy Award given to an "individual in the motion picture industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry.",^[8] as well as the Georges Méliès award from the Visual Effects Society in the same month.^[9]

See also[link]

• The Starlost
• Showscan

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Douglas Trumbull at the Internet Movie Database
• Douglas Trumbull: In Retrospect An overview of Mr. Trumbull's career, with emphasis on the special effects work he did on the movie Blade Runner. Written in 2006.
• "Total Immersion", Howard Rheingold, Wired Magazine, November 1993 - coverage of Trumbull's VR installation at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas.
• 2009 interview with Douglas Trumbull.
• Onstage conversation between Douglas Trumbull and Ben Mankiewicz, May, 2010
• Video interview
• Audio interview with Douglas Trumbull, December, 2010
• Douglas Trumbull giving a talk at ITF 2010
• The Australian article

Harry Knowles
Knowles at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010.
Born	(1971-12-11) December 11, 1971 (age 40) Austin, Texas
Occupation	Writer, critic
Spouse	Patricia Cho Jones (July 15, 2007 – present)

Harry Jay Knowles (born December 11, 1971) is a film critic and writer known for his website called Ain't It Cool News. Knowles is a member of the Austin Film Critics Association.^[1]

Biography[link]

Harry Jay Knowles was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Jarrell Jay Knowles and Helen Jane (Harrison) Knowles, who married September 19, 1970, in Austin. His early years were spent traveling the Southwest and Mexico with his parents who did light shows for touring rock bands. His parents then settled in Austin and began trading comic books and movie memorabilia from the upstairs floor of their Victorian era house, as well as from Austin's first comic and movie memorabilia store, the N.E. Mercantile Company, Inc. (N.E. was short for "New Economics"), which they founded in 1970 and ran until 1984. Knowles's parents also produced the Austin Fantasy Film Fest in 1976, one of the first science fiction conventions in Austin. Knowles spent many hours watching B-grade horror movies as well as other genres from mostly bootlegged 16 mm prints.

Knowles's parents separated in 1983 and divorced March 12, 1984; his mother received custody of him and his younger sister Dannie. The children subsequently lived with their mother on her family's ranch, the Portwood Ranch in Seymour, Texas. His mother took possession of the comics, films, and related ephemera, and placed their ownership in the names of Harry and Dannie. With nothing better to do on the ranch, Knowles spent more time immersed in reading comics and watching movies. Knowles's other activities included the Boy Scouts of America and he attained the rank of Eagle Scout.^[2] In 1989, at age 17, Knowles moved back in with his father. His mother died in a fire on December 5, 1992, on the Portwood Ranch, and Dannie moved back to Austin shortly thereafter.

Following his divorce from Helen, Harry's father founded Jay's 20th Century Esoterica in Austin in 1985, and was later joined by Harry after he graduated from high school and moved back to Austin in 1989, and by Dannie in 1992. In 1994, Harry Knowles fell while pushing a cart up a ramp at a convention, and was subsequently run over by the cart with its 1,200-pound load of memorabilia. The accident injured his back and left him virtually bedridden. With an unexpected bequest of $5,000 from his mother's life insurance, he purchased a top-of-the-line computer and a friend arranged for Internet service so they could play Doom online together. Jay, Harry and Dannie ran Jay's 20th Century Esoterica until Ain't It Cool News "took off" in 1996, and the family went out of the memorabilia business, but retained their extensive collections and continue to add to them.

Knowles married Patricia Cho Jones on July 15, 2007 at Green Pastures in Austin.^[3]

On April 4, 2008, Knowles announced that he was diagnosed as a Type-2 diabetic.^[4] On May 20, 2008, Knowles underwent lapband surgery to help alleviate his diabetes and to help lose much of the weight that has contributed to his health issues. In January 2011, Knowles underwent emergency spinal surgery to his T-10 vertebrae. According to Knowles, the surgery restored sensation in his legs for the first time in over 15 years, and he will now be undergoing physical therapy to learn to walk again.^[5]

Career[link]

After purchasing a computer in 1994, Knowles taught himself how to navigate the Internet and began frequenting newsgroups to exchange gossip and rumors with other fans about upcoming films. After being chastised by future film critic Mike D'Angelo for posting binary image files to the newsgroups, Knowles launched the website that would become Ain't It Cool News in February 1996.

Due to the popularity of the website, Knowles was sought out by the mainstream media, including magazines, newspapers, and television news programs. In 2000, he was ranked #95 in the Forbes Power List. Knowles has made guest appearances on the television shows Siskel & Ebert & the Movies and Politically Incorrect.^[6]

Harry Knowles is featured in the documentary For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism as an advocate of film criticism on the Internet; he articulates the divide between older and younger critics and advocates for the films of Michael Bay.^[7]

He was also played by Ethan Suplee in the 2009 movie Fanboys.

In April of 2012, Harry released the first episode of a new YouTube series. The show caused an uproar over the review of a script that turned out to be fake, which is not the first time such an incident has occurred at the website. Reviews for the show are forthcoming but SFWeekly criticized the show as, "the worst thing...since the website".^[8]

Film events[link]

Every year since 1999, on the weekend closest to his birthday (December 11), Knowles hosts an event called Butt-Numb-A-Thon (BNAT). The event, also known as Geek Christmas, is a 24-hour celebration of film, featuring un-official premieres, and vintage films- from classics reprinted for the big-screen, to the rare, weird and unheard of. Film fans and professionals alike travel from all over the United States and the world to attend the event, which is hosted in the critic's hometown of Austin, Texas at the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse. BNAT has been called "the world's most exclusive and mysteriously secretive film celebration" and "the hardest film event to get into in the country".

Additionally, Knowles co-programs Austin's Fantastic Fest, an eight-day film festival focusing on the genres of horror, science fiction and fantasy. This event is also held annually in September at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema's South Lamar location in Austin.

Controversies[link]

Knowles attends events offered to the press, paid for by the movie studios, including visits to movie sets and premieres. Questions have sometimes emerged about the resulting impartiality of his articles and reviews.^[9] For example, he was flown to the premiere of Godzilla, and gave the movie a wildly positive review,^[10] while a vast majority of critics disliked the film.^[11] Knowles later reversed himself and panned the film after the ensuing outcry. Knowles and his defenders, however, have noted that he has given mixed reviews to movies for which he has been sent to junkets and premieres, and in any case is often out of step with mainstream critics. Knowles also gave a negative review to the film Monkeybone, in which he made a cameo appearance.^[12]

In another controversy in 1999, he wrote an article praising a script by Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan. He failed to mention, however, that McWeeny was a contributor to the site, writing under the pseudonym "Moriarty." This and other alleged lapses were reported in a series of articles in Film Threat magazine.^[13]

In early 2000, Knowles posted materials stolen from an ABC staffer's home computer, which Knowles took at face value to be the Oscar nominees for the Academy Awards—a day before the official announcement. When the actual nominees were announced the following day, it was discovered that his finalists in almost every category were incorrect. Knowles acknowledged his error when it became clear he was wrong, but then disclosed the IP address of the person whose computer had been hacked, compounding the error. The Academy considered suing Knowles for trademark and copyright infringement, but ultimately decided against it.^[14]

Harry became the subject of more controversy in the TalkBack section of his Drive review, due to the belief that he had pirated the film. Many AICN "talkbacker's" pointed out that the films' composer, Cliff Martinez, had been replaced in the pirated versions of the film with Angelo Badalamenti. Harry managed to name the wrong composer and upon realizing his error quickly changed the review to reflect Cliff Martinez as the original composer.^[15]

On April 5, Harry posted the first episode of a new YouTube series based on the website. In the video Harry receives a copy of the script to the upcoming science-fiction film Prometheus. The following day, Harry reviewed the script on the website. Talkbackers immediately suspected it was nothing more than an example of fan fiction due to poor grammar and structuring. One of the writers on the film, Damon Lindelof, later tweeted that an element present in the script Harry reviewed was not present in the actual script and implied Harry had "been duped".^[16]

Film credits[link]

• The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1991)
• Colin Fitz Lives! (1997)
• The Faculty (1998)
• Monkeybone (2001)
• Ghosts of Mars (2001)
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
• No Pain, No Gain (2005)
• Pathogen (2006)
• Zombie Girl: The Movie (2008)
• My Sucky Teen Romance (2011)

Further reading[link]

• Harry Knowles, Paul Cullum, Mark Ebner. (March 5, 2002). Ain't It Cool? Hollywood's Redheaded Stepchild Speaks Out (1st edition). Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-52597-9.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ain't It Cool News
• Harry Knowles at the Internet Movie Database
• Harry Knowles on Twitter

John Trumbull
John Trumbull, painted by Gilbert Stuart, 1818
Born	(1756-06-06)June 6, 1756 Lebanon, Connecticut
Died	November 10, 1843(1843-11-10) (aged 87) New York, New York
Nationality	American
Field	Painting
Training	with Benjamin West
Works	Declaration of Independence (1817-1819)

John Trumbull (June 6, 1756 – November 10, 1843) was an American artist during the period of the American Revolutionary War and was notable for his historical paintings. His Declaration of Independence was used on the reverse of the two-dollar bill.

Early years[link]

Trumbull's self portrait painted in 1777

The Death of Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec (1787)

Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756, to Jonathan Trumbull, who was Governor of Connecticut from 1769 to 1784, and his wife Faith {Robinson} Trumbull. He entered the 1771 junior class at Harvard University at age fifteen and graduated in 1773. Due to a childhood accident, Trumbull lost use of one eye, which may have influenced his detailed painting style.^[1]

As a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, Trumbull rendered a particular service at Boston by sketching plans of the British works, and witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was appointed second personal aide to General George Washington, and in June 1776, deputy adjutant-general to General Horatio Gates. He resigned from the army in 1777.

In 1780 he traveled to London, where he studied under Benjamin West. At his suggestion, Trumbull painted small pictures of the War of Independence and miniature portraits, of which he produced about 250 in his lifetime.

On September 23, 1780, British agent Major John André was captured in America, and on October 2, 1780, hanged as a spy. News reached Europe, and as an officer of similar rank as André in the Continental Army, Trumbull was imprisoned for seven months in London's Tothill Fields Bridewell.

In 1784 he was again in London working under West, in whose studio he painted his Battle of Bunker Hill and Death of General Montgomery at Quebec. Both works are now in the Yale University Art Gallery.

In 1785 Trumbull went to Paris, where he made portrait sketches of French officers for Surrender of Lord Cornwallis. With the assistance of Thomas Jefferson, he began Declaration of Independence, well-known from the engraving by Asher Brown Durand. This latter painting was purchased by the United States Congress, along with his Surrender of General Burgoyne, Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and Washington Resigning his Commission. All now hang in rotunda of the United States Capitol. Allegedly because Congress only voted enough money for four paintings, only these four of Trumbull's paintings on the Revolution are hung there. Not hung were Death of General Warren at Bunker Hill; Death of General Montgomery at Quebec; Capture of Hessians at Battle of Trenton; Death of General Mercer at Battle of Princeton. Trumbull's The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar, 1789, owned by the Boston Athenaeum, is now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. While in Paris, Trumbull is credited with having introduced Thomas Jefferson to the Italian painter Maria Cosway, who would turn out to become an intimate friend of his for the rest of his life.

Middle years[link]

George Washington Before the Battle of Trenton, oil on canvas, c. 1792. Yale University Art Gallery

Trumbull sold a series of 28 paintings and 60 miniature portraits to Yale University in 1831 for an annuity of US$1000. This is by far the largest single collection of his works. The collection was originally housed in a neoclassical art gallery designed by Trumbull on Yale's Old Campus, along with portraits by other artists.^[2]

His portraits include full lengths of General Washington (1790) and George Clinton (1791), in New York City Hall, where there are also full lengths of Alexander Hamilton (1805, and the source of the face on the U.S. $10 bill^[3]) and John Jay, and portraits of John Adams (1797), Jonathan Trumbull, and Rufus King (1800); of Timothy Dwight and Stephen Van Rensselaer (both at Yale), Alexander Hamilton (in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, both taken from Ceracchi's bust), a portrait of himself painted in 1833, a full length of Washington, at Charleston, South Carolina, a full length of Washington in military costume (1792), (now at Yale), and portraits of President and Mrs. Washington (1794), in the National Museum of American History.^{[citation needed]}

Trumbull's own portrait was painted by Gilbert Stuart and by many others.

In 1794 Trumbull acted as secretary to John Jay in London during the negotiation of the treaty with Great Britain, and in 1796 he was appointed by the commissioners sent by the two countries the fifth commissioner to carry out the seventh article of the treaty.

Later years[link]

Reverse of U.S. two-dollar bill
John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence

John Trumbull commemorative postage stamp, 1968

Trumbull was appointed president of the American Academy of the Fine Arts, a position he held for nine years, from 1816 to 1825, though he did not get along with the students, and his skills declined. Eventually by 1825, his lack of support for the students led to the down fall of the Academy with the students rebelling and founding the National Academy of Design.^[4] He published an autobiography in 1841.

He died in New York City at the age of 87 on November 10,1843. He was originally interred (along with his wife) beneath the Art Gallery at Yale University that he had designed. In 1867, his collection, and the remains, were moved to the newly built Street Hall.^[5] The Trumbull Gallery was later razed.

The John Trumbull Birthplace, in Lebanon, Connecticut, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965.

Paintings[link]

• The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill
• The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec
• Declaration of Independence
• Capture of the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton
• Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton
• The Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga
• The Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown
• Washington Resigning his Commission
• Portraits of George Washington and John Adams
• The Death of Aemilius Paullus at the Battle of Cannae
• The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar, 1789
• Self-portrait
• Portrait of Josiah Bartlett
• Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (1740-1809) with Mrs. Trumbull (Eunice Backus) (1749-1826) and Faith Trumbull (1769-1846)

Gallery of Trumbull Paintings[link]

Historic Events[link]

• 

  The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill (event 1775, painted 1786)

• 

  The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec December 31 1775 (1786)

• 

  The Declaration of Independence (1795)

• 

  Capture of the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton .

• 

  The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton (circa 1795)

• 

  Surrender of General Burgoyne (event 1777, painted 1821)

• 

  Surrender of Lord Cornwallis (event 1781, painted 1820)

• 

  General George Washington Resigning his Commission

• 

  The Sortie from Gibraltar (1789)

Portraits[link]

• 

  Israel Putnam

• 

  Alexander Hamilton 1792

• 

  Alexander Hamilton 1806

• 

  Alexander Hamilton, 1832

• 

  George Washington

• 

  George Wythe

• 

  Self-portrait 1777

• 

  Self-portrait, circa 1802

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Trumbull, John (1841). Autobiography. New York. ISBN 0-917678-38-9. 
• Weir, J.F. (1901). John Trumbull, A Brief Sketch of His Life, to which is added a Catalogue of his Works. New York: C. Scribner's sons. http://books.google.com/?id=V5xGAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage. Retrieved 2008-02-16. 
• Durand, John (1881). "John Trumbull". American Art Review (Boston) ii (2): 181–191. 
• Murray, P. & L. (1996). Dictionary of Art and Artists. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-051300-0. 
• Helen A. Cooper, John Trumbull: The Hand and Spirit of a Painter (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982).
• Irma B. Jaffe, John Trumbull: Patriot-Artist of the American Revolution (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975).
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Trumbull, John (artist)". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Trumbull

• The Winterthur Library Overview of an archival collection on John Trumbull.
• Union List of Artist Names, Getty Vocabularies. ULAN Full Record Display for John Trumbull. Getty Vocabulary Program, Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California.