Mert may refer to:

• Multi-Environment Real-Time, Real-time operating system

Given name[link]

• Mert (given name), a Turkish masculine given name

Surname[link]

• Bahar Mert (born 1975), Turkish volleyball player born in Bulgaria
• Mesut Mert (born 1978(, Canadian association football player and coach of Turkish descent born in Bulgaria
• Nuray Mert (born 1960), Turkish journalist and political scientist
• Oksana Andrusina-Mert (born 1973), Turkish female discus thrower of Russian origin

See also[link]

• Meret, Egyptian goddess

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.

Look up Rich, rich, or richness in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Rich may refer to wealth. Rich may also refer to:

Organizations[link]

• B.C. Rich, guitar manufacturer
• Rich Products, international food products corporation
• Rich's, U.S. department store retail chain in the southern U.S.
• Rich's Department Stores, U.S. department store retail chain in the northeastern U.S.
• Rich International Airways, former U.S. airline
• Rich & Cowan, UK book publishing company

Science and technology[link]

• In combustion engines, rich refers to an air-fuel ratio which has an excess amount of fuel, beyond what is required for complete combustion
• Ring imaging Cherenkov detector, a particle detector

Places[link]

• Rich, California, community in Kern County
• Rich Township, Cook County, Illinois, USA
• Rich Township, Anderson County, Kansas, USA
• Rich Township, Lapeer County, Michigan, USA
• Rich, Mississippi, an unincorporated community within Coahoma County, Mississippi, USA
• Rich, Morocco

People[link]

• Rich (surname)
• Short for Richard
• Short for Richardson (surname)

Military[link]

• USS Rich (DE-695), a Buckley-class destroyer escort in WWII
• USS Rich (DD-820), a Gearing-class destroyer in the Korean War and Vietnam War

Television, film, music, and comic books[link]

• June Rich, American folk rock quartet
• Big & Rich, American country music duo
• Richie Rich (disambiguation)
• DS Terry Rich, a fictional character from EastEnders
• Rich (Skins), the second episode of series 5 of the UK TV series Skins

Other[link]

• Rich (wine), a descriptor in wine tasting

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 Jimmy Savile OBE, KCSG
Savile in 2006
Born	James Wilson Vincent Savile (1926-10-31)31 October 1926 Leeds, England
Died	29 October 2011(2011-10-29) (aged 84) Roundhay, Leeds, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	DJ, actor, columnist, television and radio personality
Years active	1958–2011
Television	Jim'll Fix It, Top of the Pops
Religion	Roman Catholic

Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile OBE KCSG (31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English disc jockey, television presenter and media personality, best known for his BBC television show Jim'll Fix It, and for being the first and last presenter of the long-running BBC music chart show Top of the Pops. He was also known for his fundraising and support of various charities, particularly Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He was widely described as a philanthropist and was honoured for his efforts.^[1][2]

Early life[link]

Savile was born in Leeds, the youngest of seven children (Mary, Marjory, Vincent, John, Joan, Christina and James) born to Agnes Monica (née Kelly) and Vincent Joseph Marie Savile, a bookmaker's clerk and insurance agent.^[3] Savile almost died of pneumonia at the age of five months.

He was a Bevin Boy, conscripted during World War II to work as a coal miner at South Kirkby Colliery, West Yorkshire, England. He suffered serious spinal injuries in a mine explosion and spent a long period in recuperation.^[4] Having started playing records in dance halls in the early 1940s, Savile claimed to be the first ever disc jockey. According to his autobiography, he was the first person to use two turntables and a microphone, at the Grand Records Ball at the Guardbridge Hotel in 1947.^[5] Savile is acknowledged as one of the pioneers of twin turntables for continuous play of music,^[6] though his claim has been disputed. (Twin turntables had been illustrated in the BBC Handbook in 1929 and were advertised for sale in Gramophone magazine in 1931.^[7])

He became a semi-professional sportsman, competing in the 1951 Tour of Britain cycle race^[8] and working as a professional wrestler.^[9] He said:

If you look at the athletics of it, I've done over 300 professional bike races, 212 marathons and 107 pro fights. [He proudly announces that he lost all of his first 35 fights.] No wrestler wanted to go back home and say a long-haired disc jockey had put him down. So from start to finish I got a good hiding. I've broken every bone in my body. I loved it.^[10]

Savile later lived in Salford, and worked as manager of the Plaza Ballroom in Oxford Road, Manchester, in the mid-fifties. He lived in Great Clowes Street in Higher Broughton, Salford, and was often seen sitting on his front door steps. He also managed the Mecca Locarno ballroom in Leeds around the late 1950s and early 1960s.^[11] Mecca also owned the Palais, a dance hall in Ilford, Essex, and Savile did a stint as manager there between 1955 and 1956. His Monday evening records-only dance sessions (admission one shilling) were a huge favourite with local teens.^[12]

Radio[link]

Savile started his radio career working as a Radio Luxembourg DJ from 1958 to 1967. He ran the Teen and Twenty Disc Club (TTDC),^[13] membership for life, on Radio Luxembourg. For a small fee listeners received a certificate and a small bracelet with a disc on it, inscribed with the show's name. He stated on the BBC television series Inside Out that the title Teen and Twenty Disc Club had been rejected by the BBC in favour of Top of the Pops as too long; also that he introduced dancing to records, so that he was the originator of the discothèque.

In 1968 he joined BBC Radio 1, where he initially presented Savile's Travels and the discussion show Speakeasy. His best-remembered contribution to Radio 1, however, is the Sunday lunchtime show Jimmy Savile's Old Record Club, where entire top tens from years gone by were played. This was the first show to feature old charts. It began in 1973 as The Double Top Ten Show and ended in 1987 as The Triple Top Ten Show, at which point he left Radio 1 after 19 years, although he could be heard presenting The Vintage Chart Show on BBC World Service between March 1987 and October 1989, playing top tens from the years 1957 to 1987.

From March 1989 to August 1997 he was heard on various stations around the UK (mostly taking the Gold format, such as the West Midlands' Xtra AM and the original Classic Gold network in Yorkshire) where he revived his Radio 1 shows.

In 1994, satirist Chris Morris gave a fake obituary on BBC Radio 1 (as a joke), saying that Savile had collapsed and died, which allegedly drew threats of legal action from Savile and forced an apology from Morris.

On 25 December 2005, and 1 January 2007, Savile presented shows on the Real Radio network. The Christmas 2005 show counted down the festive Top 10s of 10, 20 and 30 years previously, while the New Year 2007 show (also taken by Century Radio following its acquisition by GMG) featured Savile recounting anecdotes from his past and playing associated records, mostly from the 1960s although some were from the 1970s.

Television[link]

In 1960 he presented Tyne Tees Television's music programme Young at Heart. Although the show was broadcast in black and white, Savile dyed his hair a different colour every week.^[14]

On New Year's Day, 1964, he presented the first edition of the BBC music chart television programme Top of the Pops from a television studio – a converted church (now demolished) – in Dickenson Road Rusholme, Manchester. On 30 July 2006 he also co-hosted the final edition, ending the show with the words "It's number one, it's still Top of the Pops", before being shown turning off the studio lights after the closing credits. When interviewed by the BBC on 20 November 2008 and asked about the revival of Top of The Pops for a Christmas comeback, he commented that he would welcome a "cameo role" in the programme.^[15]

During the early 1960s he co-hosted (with Pete Murray) New Musical Express Poll Winners' Concert, annually held at Empire Pool, Wembley, with acts such as The Beatles, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Joe Brown and the Bruvvers, The Who, and many others. These were filmed and recorded and later broadcast on television. On 31 December 1969, Savile hosted the BBC/ZDF co-production Pop Go The Sixties, shown across Western Europe, celebrating the hits of the 1960s.

Savile is also remembered for a series of Public Information Films promoting road safety, notably "Clunk Click Every Trip" which was promoted the use of the car seatbelts, the clunk representing the sound of the door and the click the sound of the seatbelt fastening. This led to Savile's hosting his own Saturday night chat/variety show on BBC1 from 1973 entitled Clunk, Click, which in 1974 featured the UK heats for the Eurovision Song Contest featuring Olivia Newton-John. He also fronted a long-running series of advertisements in the early 1980s for British Rail's InterCity 125, in which he declared "This is the age of the train". After two series, Clunk, Click was replaced by Jim'll Fix It which he presented from 1975 to 1994.

He was interviewed by Dr. Anthony Clare for the radio series In the Psychiatrist's Chair, where Savile appeared to be "a man without feelings."^[16] In 1995 he was interviewed at length by Andrew Neil for the TV series Is This Your Life? (made by Open Media for Channel 4).^[17] In April 2000, he was the subject of an in depth documentary by Louis Theroux, in the When Louis Met… documentary series. "When Louis Met...Jimmy" was voted one of the top fifty documentaries of all time in a survey by Britain's Channel Four.^[18]

Savile visited the Celebrity Big Brother house on 14 and 15 January 2006. During these visits he "fixed it" for some of the housemates to have their wishes granted; for example, Pete Burns received a message from his significant other and friend while Dennis Rodman was able to trade Savile's offering for a supply of cigarettes for other housemates.

In 2007 Savile returned to television with Jim'll Fix It Strikes Again, in which he showed some of the most popular 'fixits' ever, recreating them with the same people, as well as making new dreams come true.^[19]

Personal life[link]

Savile was famous for his yodel^[20] and his catchphrases included "how's about that, then?", "now then, now then, now then", "goodness gracious", "as it 'appens" and "guys and gals". Savile was frequently spoofed for his distinctive appearance, which almost always consisted of a track suit or shell suit, along with gold jewellery. A range of licensed fancy dress costumes were released with his consent in 2009. Savile was also very well known as a heavy cigar smoker, and often smoked them for the public eye.^[21] In July 2005 he was named as one of the Radio Times "Top 40 most eccentric TV presenters of all time".

He was a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists^[22] and drove a Rolls-Royce.^[23] He was also a member of Mensa.^[24] He was chieftain of the Lochaber Highland Games for many years, and owned a house in Glen Coe. His appearance on the final edition of Top of the Pops in 2006 was pre-recorded as it clashed with the games.^[25] While still alive he arranged for a bench, in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, to be dedicated to his memory, with the words 'Jimmy Savile – but not just yet!' added as an inscription.^[26][27]

A bachelor, Savile lived with his mother (whom he referred to as "The Duchess") and kept her bedroom and wardrobe exactly as it was when she died. Every year he had her clothes dry cleaned. Savile's personal relationships were rarely the subject of media report or comment during his lifetime. He claimed in his autobiography that he had had many intimate relations with members of the opposite sex, describing his first introduction to women in detail and then adding: ".. there have been trains and, with apologies to the hit parade, boats and planes (I am a member of the 40,000 ft club) and bushes and fields, corridors, doorways, floors, chairs, slag heaps, desks and probably everything except the celebrated chandelier and ironing board."^[28] Savile claimed that the key to his success on Jim'll Fix It had been that he disliked children, although he later admitted to saying this to deflect scrutiny of his personal life. He did not own a computer, explaining that he did not want anybody to think that he was downloading child pornography.^[29]

In November 2007 Savile was robbed by a fan who made off with his glasses whilst in a Leeds hotel. According to Savile, he was walking down a corridor of the Queens Hotel at around midnight after attending a function at the hotel when he became aware of a woman walking beside him. He assumed the woman was going to hug him but she instead reached for his glasses before sprinting off down the corridor. He later said "I thought it was marvellous, it was just like old times!". Savile promised his 'assailant' a box of chocolates for giving him a "1960s thrill in 2007".^[30]

Charitable works[link]

Aside from his TV and radio work, Savile carried out a considerable amount of charity work and is estimated to have raised some £40 million for charity.^[31]

One of the causes for which he raised money was the Stoke Mandeville Hospital where he worked for many years as a volunteer porter. He raised money for the Spinal Unit, NSIC (National Spinal Injuries Centre). Savile also raised money for St Francis Ward – a ward for children and teens with spinal cord Injuries.

Savile also worked as a volunteer at Leeds General Infirmary and at Broadmoor Hospital. In 1988 he was appointed chairman of a task force set up to advise on governing Broadmoor. Savile had his own room at both Stoke Mandeville and Broadmoor.^[32]

From 1974 - 1988 he was the honorary president of Phab (Physically Handicapped in the Able Bodied community).^[33]

He also sponsored medical students at the University of Leeds to perform undergraduate research in the Leeds University Research Enterprise scholarship scheme (known as LURE), donating over £60,000 every year.^[34] In 2010 the scheme was extended with a commitment of £500,000 over the following five years.^[35] Following Savile's death in October 2011 it was confirmed that a bequest had been made to allow continued support for the LURE programme.^[36]

Savile was also well known for running marathons (many of them again for Phab, including their annual half marathon around Hyde Park). He completed the London Marathon in 2005, at the age of 79.

Honours[link]

• In 1971 he was awarded the OBE,^[37] which he always subsequently appended to his signature.
• Awarded honorary Commando Green Beret by the Royal Marines in the 1970s for being one of only three civilians to date to complete the Royal Marine Commando speed march, 30 miles across Dartmoor carrying 30 lb of kit.^[38] The other civilians were former Blue Peter presenter Gethin Jones and film maker Chris Terrill.
• In 1990 he was knighted for his services in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.^[39] The same year he was honoured with a Papal knighthood making him a Knight Commander of Saint Gregory the Great (KCSG).^[40]
• He held an honorary doctorate of law (LLD) from the University of Leeds.^[41]
• He was an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists (FRCR).^[42]
• He was a Knight of Malta.^[42]
• He was a Freeman of the Borough of Scarborough^[43]

Death[link]

Savile's coffin on display in the Queen's Hotel, Leeds, 8 November 2011

Police and paramedics were called to Savile's home at Roundhay, Leeds,^[44] at 12:10 pm on 29 October 2011, where they found his body.^[45] He was two days short of his 85th birthday. He had recently been treated in hospital for pneumonia, and police said that they were not treating his death as suspicious.^[44] His closed satin gold coffin was displayed at the Queens Hotel in Leeds^[46][47] together with the last cigar he smoked and his two This Is Your Life books.^[48] About 4,000 people visited to pay tribute.^[49] His funeral took place at Leeds Cathedral on 9 November 2011,^[50] and he was buried on 10 November at 12:30 pm at Woodlands Cemetery in the seaside town of Scarborough.^[51][52] As his will had specified, his coffin was inclined at 45 degrees to fulfil his wish to "see the sea".^[52][53] The coffin was later encased in concrete "as a security measure".^[54]

Works[link]

Books

• Jimmy Savile, As it happens, ISBN 0-214-20056-6, Barrie & Jenkins 1974 (autobiography)
• Jimmy Savile, Love is an Uphill Thing, ISBN 0-340-19925-3, Coronet 1976 (softback edition of As it Happens)
• Jimmy Savile, God'll Fix It, ISBN 0-264-66457-4, Mowbray, Oxford 1979

Recordings

• 1962, "Ahab the Arab" with Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. Decca, F11493 (single)^[55][56]

References[link]

External links[link]

• BBC News Obituary
• Jimmy Savile at the Internet Movie Database
• Jimmy Savile Biography and Radio 1 audio clips at Radio Rewind
• BBC article about the "Clunk Click Every Trip" safety belt advert
• Jimmy Savile at Find a Grave

Nicolas Cage
Cage at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International.
Born	Nicolas Kim Coppola (1964-01-07) January 7, 1964 (age 48)[1] Long Beach, California, US
Occupation	Actor, producer, director
Years active	1980–present
Spouse	Patricia Arquette (1995–2001) Lisa Marie Presley (2002–2004) Alice Kim (2004–present)
Children	Weston Coppola Cage Kal-El Cage
Parents	August Coppola (deceased) Joy Vogelsang
Family	Marc Coppola (brother) Christopher Coppola (brother) Francis Ford Coppola (uncle) Eleanor Coppola (aunt)

Nicolas Cage (born Nicolas Kim Coppola; January 7, 1964) is an Academy Award–winning American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona (1987), The Rock (1996), Face/Off (1997), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), Adaptation (2002), National Treasure (2004), Lord of War (2005), Ghost Rider (2007), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), Kick-Ass (2010), and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012).

Early life[link]

Cage was born Nicolas Kim Coppola^[2] on January 7, 1964^[1][3][4][5] in Long Beach, California. His father, August Coppola, a professor of literature, and his mother, Joy Vogelsang, a dancer and choreographer, divorced in 1976. He was raised in a Catholic family.^[6][7] Cage's mother is of German descent and his father was of Italian descent. His paternal grandparents were composer Carmine Coppola and actress Italia Pennino, and his paternal great-grandparents were immigrants from Bernalda, Basilicata.^[8] Through his father, Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, and the cousin of directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola, film producer Gian-Carlo Coppola, and actors Robert Carmine and Jason Schwartzman. Cage's two brothers are New York radio personality Marc "The Cope" Coppola and director Christopher Coppola. He attended Beverly Hills High School, which is known for its many alumni who became entertainers. He aspired to act from an early age and also attended UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television. His first non-cinematic acting experience was in a school production of Golden Boy.

Career[link]

Acting career[link]

To avoid the appearance of nepotism as the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, he changed his name early in his career to Nicolas Cage, inspired in part by the Marvel Comics superhero Luke Cage. Since his minor role in the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High, with Sean Penn, Cage has appeared in a wide range of films, both mainstream and offbeat. He tried out for the role of Dallas Winston in his uncle's film The Outsiders, based on S.E. Hinton's novel, but lost to Matt Dillon. He was also in Coppola's films Rumble Fish and Peggy Sue Got Married.

Other Cage roles included appearances in the acclaimed 1987 romantic-comedy Moonstruck, also starring Cher; The Coen Brothers cult-classic comedy Raising Arizona; David Lynch's 1990 offbeat film Wild at Heart; a lead role in Martin Scorsese's 1999 New York City paramedic drama Bringing Out the Dead; and Ridley Scott's 2003 quirky drama Matchstick Men, in which he played an agoraphobic, mysophobic, obsessive-compulsive con artist with a tic disorder.

Cage has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, winning once for his performance as a suicidal alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas. His other nomination was for his portrayal of real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and Kaufman's fictional twin Donald in Adaptation. Despite these successes, most of his lower-profile films have performed poorly at the box office compared to his mainstream action/adventure roles. The suspense thriller 8mm (1999) was not a box office success, but is now considered a cult film. He took the lead role in the 2001 film Captain Corelli's Mandolin and learned to play the mandolin from scratch for the part. He made his directorial debut with 2002's Sonny. In 2005, two offbeat films he headlined, Lord of War and The Weather Man, failed to find a significant audience despite nationwide releases and good reviews for his acting in those roles. Poor reviews for The Wicker Man resulted in low box office sales. The much criticized Ghost Rider (2007), based on the Marvel Comics character, fared better, earning more than $45 million (the top earner) during its opening weekend and over $208 million worldwide through the weekend ending on March 25, 2007. Also in 2007, he starred in Next, which shared the concept of a glimpse into an alternate timeline with Cage's film, The Family Man (2000).

Most of Cage's movies that have achieved financial success were in the action/adventure genre. In his second-highest grossing film to date, National Treasure, he plays an eccentric historian who goes on a dangerous adventure to find treasure hidden by the Founding Fathers of the United States. Other action hits include The Rock, in which Cage plays a young FBI chemical weapons expert who infiltrates Alcatraz Island in hopes of neutralizing a terrorist threat, Face/Off, a John Woo film where he plays both a hero and a villain, and World Trade Center, director Oliver Stone's film regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks. He had a small but notable role as the Chinese criminal mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu in Rob Zombie's fake trailer Werewolf Women of the S.S. from the B-movie double feature Grindhouse.

Cage made his directorial debut with Sonny, a low-budget drama starring James Franco as a male prostitute whose mother (Brenda Blethyn) serves as his pimp. Cage had a small role in the film, which received poor reviews and a short run in a limited number of theatres. Cage's producing career includes Shadow of the Vampire, the first effort from Saturn Films.

In early December 2006, Cage announced at the Bahamas International Film Festival that he planned to curtail his future acting endeavors to pursue other interests. On The Dresden Files for the Sci-Fi Channel, Cage is listed as the executive producer.

In November 2007, Cage was spotted backstage at a Ring of Honor wrestling show in New York City researching his role for The Wrestler. The role was ultimately played by Mickey Rourke, who received an Academy Award nomination for his performance.^[9] Wrestler Director Darren Aronofsky, in an interview with slashfilm.com, said of Cage's decision to leave the film that: "Nic was a complete gentleman, and he understood that my heart was with Mickey and he stepped aside. I have so much respect for Nic Cage as an actor and I think it really could have worked with Nic but ... you know, Nic was incredibly supportive of Mickey and he is old friends with Mickey and really wanted to help with this opportunity, so he pulled himself out of the race.^[10]"

Cage at the 66th Venice Film Festival in September 2009

In 2008, Cage appeared as Joe, a contract killer who undergoes a change of heart while on a work outing in Bangkok, in the film Bangkok Dangerous. The film is shot by the Pang Brothers and has a distinct South-East Asian flavor. In 2009, Cage starred in science fiction thriller Knowing, directed by Alex Proyas. In the film, he plays an MIT professor who examines the contents of a time capsule unearthed at his son's elementary school. Startling predictions found inside the capsule that have already come true lead him to believe the world is going to end at the close of the week, and that he and his son are somehow involved in the destruction. The film received mainly negative reviews but was the box office winner on its opening weekend. Also in 2009, Cage starred in the film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, directed by acclaimed German director Werner Herzog. He portrayed a corrupt police officer with gambling, drug and alcohol addictions. The film was very well received by critics, holding a rating of 87% positive reviews on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.^[11] Cage received lauds for his performance, with Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune writing "Herzog has found his ideal interpreter, a performer whose truth lies deep in the artifice of performance: ladies and gentlemen, Nicolas Cage, at his finest."^[12] This film reunited Cage with Eva Mendes, who played his love interest in Ghost Rider. In 2010, Cage starred in the period piece Season of the Witch, playing a 14th-century knight transporting a girl accused of causing the Black Plague to a monastery, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice, in which he played the sorcerer.^[13]

Other works[link]

Cage, an avid comic book fan, auctioned a collection of 400 vintage comics through Heritage Auctions for over $1.6 million in 2002.^[14]

In 2007 he created a comic book with his son Weston, called Voodoo Child, which was published by Virgin Comics.

Cage is a fan and collector of painter and underground comic artist Robert Williams. He has written introductions for Juxtapoz magazine and purchased the painting Death On The Boards.^[15]

Acting style[link]

In February 2011, Cage claimed to have created a new method of acting he calls "Nouveau Shamanic". He claims to have used the acting style throughout his career and one day plans to write a book about the method.^[16]

Praise and criticism[link]

Nicolas Cage's acting has been praised by influential film critic Roger Ebert who writes, in his "Great Movies" essay about the film Adaptation, that: "There are often lists of the great living male movie stars: De Niro, Nicholson and Pacino, usually. How often do you see the name of Nicolas Cage? He should always be up there. He's daring and fearless in his choice of roles, and unafraid to crawl out on a limb, saw it off and remain suspended in air. No one else can project inner trembling so effectively.... He always seems so earnest. However improbable his character, he never winks at the audience. He is committed to the character with every atom and plays him as if he were him."^[17] Roger Ebert, in response to mixed reviews of Knowing and their focus on criticizing Cage, wrote an article in which he defends both Cage as an actor and the movie to which, in stark contrast to other critics, Ebert gave 4/4 stars.^[18]

In the 68th Academy Awards, Cage was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas.^[19]

In May 2001, Cage was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts by California State University, Fullerton. He spoke at the commencement ceremony.^[20]

Despite such praise, Cage has his detractors. Cage has been criticized for choosing to star in big-budget, action-adventure movies rather than smaller, character-driven dramas, the type of film that initially garnered him praise.^[21] In 1999, one-time friend Sean Penn expressed that sentiment to the New York Times, declaring Cage "no longer an actor."^[22]

Personal life[link]

Relationships and family[link]

In 1988, Cage began dating actress Christina Fulton, who later bore their son, Weston Coppola Cage (born December 26, 1990). Weston is lead singer of the black metal band Eyes of Noctum, and appeared in Cage's film Lord of War as Vladimir, a young Ukrainian mechanic who quickly disarms a Mil Mi-24 helicopter.

Cage has been married three times. His first wife was actress Patricia Arquette (married on April 8, 1995, divorce finalized on May 18, 2001).

Cage's second marriage was to singer/songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley. Cage is an Elvis fan and used the star as the base of his performance in Wild at Heart. Presley and Cage married on August 10, 2002 and filed for divorce on November 25, 2002 which was finalized on May 16, 2004. The divorce proceeding was longer than the marriage.^[23]

Cage met his third and current wife Alice Kim, a former waitress who previously worked at the Los Angeles restaurant Kabuki and at the Los Angeles-based Korean nightclub, Le Privé. She bore their son, Kal-El, (after Superman's birth name^[24]) on October 3, 2005. Cage was once considered for the role of Superman in a film to be directed by Tim Burton. Alice had a minor role in the 2007 film Next, which Cage produced. They were married at a private ranch in Northern California on July 30, 2004.^{[citation needed]}

Real estate and tax problems[link]

Nicolas Cage is one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors, earning $40 million in 2009 according to Forbes Magazine.^[25]

Cage had a Malibu home where he and Kim lived, but sold the property in 2005 for $10 million. In 2004 he bought a property on Paradise Island, Bahamas. In May 2006, he bought a 40-acre (160,000 m²) island in the Exuma archipelago, some 85 miles (137 km) southeast of Nassau and close to a similar island owned by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.

He once owned the medieval castle of Schloss Neidstein in the Oberpfalz region in Germany, which he bought in 2006 and sold in 2009 for $2.5 million. His grandmother was German, living in Cochem an der Mosel.^[26]

Schloss Neidstein in Bavaria was owned by Cage between 2007 and 2009.

In August 2007, Cage purchased "Grey Craig", a 24,000-square-foot (2,200 m²) brick-and-stone country manor in Middletown, Rhode Island. With an estate occupying 26 acres (110,000 m²) the home has 12 bedrooms and 10 full bathrooms and overlooks the Atlantic Ocean as well. It borders the Norman Bird Sanctuary to the west. The sale ranked among the state of Rhode Island's most expensive residential purchases until eclipsed that same year, 2007, by the $17.15 million sale of the Miramar mansion on Bellevue Avenue in Newport.

Also in 2007, the actor purchased Midford Castle in Somerset, England.^[27][28][29] Shortly after selling his German castle, Cage also put homes in Rhode Island, Louisiana, Nevada, and California, as well as a $7 million island in the Bahamas, up for sale.

On July 14, 2009, the Internal Revenue Service filed documents in New Orleans in connection with a federal tax lien against property owned by Cage in Louisiana, concerning unpaid federal taxes. The IRS alleges that Cage failed to pay over $6.2 million in federal income tax for the year 2007.^[30] In addition, the Internal Revenue Service has another lien for more than $350,000 in unpaid taxes dating from 2002 to 2004.^[31] Cage filed a $20 million lawsuit on October 16, 2009, against his business manager, Samuel J. Levin, alleging negligence and fraud.^[32] The lawsuit states that Levin "had failed to pay taxes when they were due and had placed [Cage] in speculative and risky real estate investments 'resulting in (the actor) suffering catastrophic losses'."^[32] Cage is also facing separate lawsuits from East West Bank^[33] and Red Curb Investments for unpaid, multimillion dollar loans.

The LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans was purchased anonymously by Cage in 2007 and sold in 2009.

Samuel Levin filed a counter-complaint and responded to the lawsuit in a filing stating that he warned Cage that he was living beyond his means and urged him to spend less. Levin's filing states that "instead of listening to Levin, cross-defendant Cage (Coppola) spent most of his free time shopping for high ticket purchases, and wound up with 15 personal residences", Levin's complaint continued: "Likewise, Levin advised Coppola against buying a Gulfstream jet, against buying and owning a flotilla of yachts, against buying and owning a squadron of Rolls Royces, against buying millions of dollars in jewelry and art."^[34]

In his filing Levin says that in 2007 Cage's "shopping spree entailed the purchase of three additional residences at a total cost of more than $33 million; the purchase of 22 automobiles (including 9 Rolls Royces); 12 purchases of expensive jewelry; and 47 purchases of artwork and exotic items."^[34] One of those exotic items was a dinosaur skull of a Tarbosaurus for which Nicolas Cage paid $276,000 in an auction after winning a bidding contest against Leonardo DiCaprio.^[35]

According to Cage, he owned the "Most Haunted House in America", a home located in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana.^[36] The home is known as "The LaLaurie house" after its former owner Delphine LaLaurie. The house was foreclosed and sold at auction on November 12, 2009 along with another New Orleans property for a total of $5.5 million, in the wake of his financial problems.^[37]

His Bel Air home, which had six loans totaling $18 million on it, failed to sell at an April 2010 foreclosure auction despite an opening offer of $10.4 million, substantially less than the $35 million that Cage had originally tried to sell it for. The home, built in 1940 for $110,000 had been owned by Dean Martin and singer Tom Jones.^[38] The home eventually sold in November 2010 for $10.5 million.^[39] Another home in Nevada also faces foreclosure auction.^[37]

In November 2011, Cage also sold his Action Comics 1 in an online auction for a record-breaking $2.16 million dollars (the previous record being 1.5), to assist paying his tax liens and other debts. Cage purchased the comic in 1997 for $110,000.^[40]

Legal issues[link]

In December 2009, Christina Fulton sued Cage for $13 million and the house she is living in. The suit was in response to an order that she leave the dwelling that was brought about by Cage's financial difficulties.^[41]

On April 15, 2011, at 11:30 pm, Cage was arrested in New Orleans in the city's famed French Quarter district for suspicion of domestic abuse battery, disturbing the peace and public intoxication, after a police officer was flagged down by onlookers after Cage allegedly grabbed his wife's upper arm while appearing to be under the influence of alcohol.^[42] Cage was held in police custody until a bail of $11,000 was posted by Duane "Dog" Chapman.^[43][44] He was later ordered to appear in court on May 31, 2011.^[45] On May 5, 2011, it was announced that the charges against Cage had been dropped.^{[46][47][48][49]}

Filmography[link]

See also[link]

Film portal

• Coppola family tree
• List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nicolas Cage

• Nicolas Cage at the Internet Movie Database
• Nicolas Cage at AllRovi
• World Trade Center Interview with Nicolas Cage From IGN FilmForce