![Gąbin [ˈgɔmbin] is a town in Płock County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, with 4,230 inhabitants (2006).](http://web.archive.org./web/20110418211342im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/e9/37/af703c3f8f5f35e806883b079c02_grande.jpg "Gąbin [ˈgɔmbin] is a town in Płock County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, with 4,230 inhabitants (2006).")
![The fine arts department of the Faculty of Arts and Science is housed in 1 Spadina Crescent. The Faculty of Arts and Science is the university's main undergraduate faculty, and administers most of the courses in the college system.[56] While the colleges are not entirely responsible for teaching duties,](http://web.archive.org./web/20110418211342im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/fb/4f/2d02694b7518b99560cca15bd64d_grande.jpg "The fine arts department of the Faculty of Arts and Science is housed in 1 Spadina Crescent. The Faculty of Arts and Science is the university's main undergraduate faculty, and administers most of the courses in the college system.[56] While the colleges are not entirely responsible for teaching duties,")
| Name | Renaissance |
|---|---|
| Caption | French theatrical release poster |
| Director | Christian Volckman |
| Producer | Roch LenerAton SoumacheAlexis Vonarb |
| Screenplay | Mathieu DelaporteAlexandre de la PatellièrePatrick RaynalJean-Bernard Pouy |
| Music | Nicholas Dodd |
| Distributor | Pathé |
| Released | |
| Runtime | 105 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Budget | €14 million |
| Gross | $1,831,348 (worldwide) |
Renaissance is a 2006 French black-and-white animated science fiction film by French director Christian Volckman. It was co-produced in France, United Kingdom and Luxembourg and released on 15 March 2006 in France and 28 July 2006 in the UK by Miramax Films. Renaissance features a rare visual style in which almost all images are exclusively black and white, with only occasional colour used for detail.
Jonas Muller had been working to cure progeria, which his brother was suffering from. Miller worked for Avalon as their top scientist but left after he failed to cure his brother. He took up new work at a free clinic. After Karas probes Jonas he finds that "No one ever leaves Avalon", throwing the corporation under suspicion. Karas leaves to visit one of Avalon's CEOs and questions him about Ilona's disappearance, suggesting that he may have been sleeping with her, to which the CEO replies "I sleep with my wife, I sleep with my secretary, I even sleep with my sister-in-law but I would never sleep with one of my researchers".
After following a series of dead leads, Karas find Illona's car travelling on the road. He captures the driver, one of the CEO's bodyguards, and turns him over to Farfallah, an Islamic mobster. In return, Keras receives footage of Illona's car initially being stolen by an incredibly old man. Karas turns to Ilona's sister, Bislane. He asks her to break into the Avalon archives as she is currently employed there, and Bislane discovers that Dr. Nakata worked with Jonas and their quest to find a cure failed, when some of the children they were testing on started to mutate, causing them to destroy all evidence of their work.
Once they escape from Avalon security, Karas opens up to Bislane and tells her that he and Fafallah were raised on the streets and seemed to work with gangs. After a mission went wrong they ended up in a prison cell with Farfallah escaping leaving Karas to the mercy of the other gang members; after this confession Bislane and Karas begin to kiss and it is implied they sleep with each other. Karas then puts Bislane under false arrest to protect her from Avalon.
As this occurs, Ilona is shown confined in a cyber ball, with the old man controlling what she sees. "My name is Ilona Tsivu, I am 22 I want to live!".
Dr. Muller tells Karas that Ilona found the secret to eternal life and he couldn't let Avalon have it, revealing why he kidnapped her. Muller then shoots himself to escape Avalon. It is revealed that the old man is Jonas's younger brother, trapped in an old man's body, Karas is eventually shot after he rescues Ilona; when he wakes up it is clear that she has gone mad and refuses to take the fake passport to start a new life, wanting to live forever. Karas is then forced to shoot her with the CEO watching on CCTV cameras.
As Karas is mortally injured from his gunshot wound, he imagines himself apologizing to Bislane for killing her sister, for which she forgives him. It then cuts to Jonas's little brother now living as a tramp, throwing his picture of him and his brother together in a burning bin. The last scene shows an advert for Avalon with an old woman becoming young again saying "With Avalon I will stay young forever".
The producers used motion capture and computer graphics to create the film's unique look. The cast performed their scenes in motion-capture suits in front of a blue screen. Computer animators translated these animations to digital models used for the characters. The animated characters were placed in three-dimensional computer backdrops, with post-process effects added to achieve the film's final look.
French automaker Citroën designed a car specially for the film, imagining what a Citroën might look like in 2054. Volckman initially wanted Karas to drive a Citroën DS and approached the company for permission to use it in the film. Citroën suggested the filmmakers work with their designers to design a new car. The final design was produced after three months.
The film cost €14 million to make over six years. It was funded by Disney with US$3 million provided from Miramax.
;Interviews Interview with director Christian Volkman Christian Volkman at Dark Horizons Interview with visual concept artist Marc Miance of Attitude Studios
Category:2006 films Category:Animated science fiction films Category:British animated films Category:Animated films Category:French films Category:Luxembourgian films Category:British films Category:English-language films Category:French-language films Category:French animated films Category:2000s science fiction films Category:Tech noir films Category:Miramax films Category:Cyberpunk films Category:French science fiction films Category:British science fiction films
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Caption | Ford in 2009 |
|---|---|
| Birth date | July 13, 1942 |
| Birth place | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor/Producer |
| Years active | 1966–present |
| Spouse | Mary Marquardt (1964–1979; divorced) Melissa Mathison (1983–2004; divorced) Calista Flockhart (2010–present) |
Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American film actor and producer. He is best known for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. His four-decade career also includes roles in several other Hollywood blockbusters, including Presumed Innocent, The Fugitive, Air Force One, and What Lies Beneath. At one point, three of the top five box-office hits of all time included one of his roles. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry.
In 1997, Ford was ranked # 1 in Empire's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. As of July 2008, the United States domestic box office grosses of Ford's films total almost $3.4 billion, with worldwide grosses surpassing $6 billion, making Ford the third highest grossing U.S. domestic box-office star. Ford is the husband of actress Calista Flockhart.
Ford was active in the Boy Scouts of America, and achieved its second-highest rank, Life Scout. He worked at a scout camp, Napowan Adventure Base, as a counselor for the Reptile Study merit badge. Because of this, he and Eagle Scout director Steven Spielberg later decided that the character of young Indiana Jones would be depicted as a Life Scout in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. They also jokingly reversed Ford's knowledge of reptiles into Jones's fear of snakes.
In 1960, Ford graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. His was the first student voice broadcast on his high school's new radio station, WMTH, and he was its first sportscaster during his senior year (1959–1960). He attended Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. He took a drama class in his junior year, chiefly as a way to meet women. Ford, a self-described "late bloomer", became fascinated with acting.
His speaking roles continued next with Luv (1967), though he was still uncredited. He was finally credited as "Harrison J. Ford" in the 1967 Western film, A Time for Killing, but the "J" did not stand for anything since he has no middle name. It was added to avoid confusion with a silent film actor named Harrison Ford, who appeared in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1932, and died in 1957. Ford later said that he was unaware of the existence of the earlier Harrison Ford until he came upon a star with his own name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Ford soon dropped the "J" and worked for Universal Studios, playing minor roles in many television series throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Gunsmoke, Ironside, The Virginian, The F.B.I., Love, American Style, and Kung Fu. He appeared in the western Journey to Shiloh (1968) and had an uncredited, non-speaking role in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 film Zabriskie Point as an arrested student protester. Not happy with the roles being offered to him, Ford became a self-taught professional carpenter to support his then-wife and two small sons. While working as a carpenter, he became a stagehand for the popular rock band The Doors. He also built a sun deck for Sally Kellerman and a recording studio for Sérgio Mendes.
He returned to acting when George Lucas, who had hired him to build cabinets in his home, cast him in a pivotal supporting role for his film American Graffiti (1973). His relationship with Lucas was to have a profound effect on Ford's career. After director Francis Ford Coppola's film The Godfather was a success, he hired Ford to do expansions of his office and Harrison was given a small role in his next two films, The Conversation (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979).
The 1990s brought Ford the role of Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy's Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994), as well as leading roles in Alan Pakula's Presumed Innocent (1990) and The Devil's Own (1997), Andrew Davis's The Fugitive (1993), Sydney Pollack's remake of Sabrina (1995), and Wolfgang Petersen's Air Force One (1997). Ford has also played straight dramatic roles, including an adulterous husband with a terrible secret in both Presumed Innocent (1990) and What Lies Beneath (2000), and a recovering amnesiac in Mike Nichols' Regarding Henry (1991).
Many of Ford's major film roles came to him by default through unusual circumstances: he won the role of Han Solo while reading lines for other actors, was cast as Indiana Jones because Tom Selleck was not available, and took the role of Jack Ryan due to Alec Baldwin's fee demands (Baldwin had previously played the role in The Hunt for Red October).
In 2004, Ford declined a chance to star in the thriller Syriana, later commenting that "I didn't feel strongly enough about the truth of the material and I think I made a mistake." The role eventually went to George Clooney, who won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his work. Prior to that, he had passed on a role in another Stephen Gaghan-written role, Robert Wakefield in Traffic. That role went to Michael Douglas.
In 2008, Ford enjoyed success with the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, another collaboration between George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. The film received generally mixed reviews but was the second highest-grossing film worldwide in 2008. He later said he would like to star in another sequel "if it didn't take another 20 years to digest".
Other 2008 work included Crossing Over, directed by Wayne Kramer. In the film, he plays an immigrations officer, working alongside Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta. He also narrated a feature documentary film about the Dalai Lama entitled Dalai Lama Renaissance.
Ford filmed the medical drama Extraordinary Measures in 2009 in Portland, Oregon. Released January 22, 2010, the film also starred Brendan Fraser and Alan Ruck. Also in 2010, he co-starred in the film Morning Glory, along with Patrick Wilson, Rachel McAdams, and Diane Keaton.
Recently, he has expressed interest in returning to the Jack Ryan franchise.
In 2006, Ford was awarded the Jules Verne Spirit of Nature Award for his work in nature and wildlife preservation. The ceremony took place at the historic Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.
He received the first ever Hero Award for his many iconic roles, including Han Solo and Indiana Jones, at the 2007 Scream Awards, and in 2008, the Spike TV's Guy's Choice Award for Brass Balls.
Harrison Ford received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2000.
Ford has three grandchildren: Eliel (b. 1993), Giuliana (b. 1997), and Ethan (b. 2000). Son Benjamin owns Ford's Filling Station, a gastro pub in Culver City, California. Son Willard is co-owner of Ford&Ching; showroom as well as Ludwig clothing company.
Ford injured his chin at the age of 20 when his car, a Volvo 544, hit a telephone pole in Northern California; the scar is visible in his films. An explanation for it on film is offered in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when a young Indiana Jones cuts his chin while attempting to crack a whip to ward off a lion. In Working Girl, Ford's character explains that it happened when he passed out and hit his chin on the toilet when a college girlfriend was piercing his ear. In June 1983, at age 40, during the filming of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in London, he herniated a disc in his back, forcing him to fly back to Los Angeles for an operation. He returned six weeks later.
Since 1992, Ford has lent his voice to a series of public service messages promoting environmental involvement for EarthShare, an American federation of environmental and conservation charities.
On September 7, 1995, Ford testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in support of the Dalai Lama and an independent Tibet, and was banned thereafter by the Chinese government from entering Tibet and China. In 2008, he narrated the documentary Dalai Lama Renaissance.
In 2003, he publicly condemned the Iraq War and called for "regime change" in the United States. He also criticized Hollywood for making violent movies, and called for more gun control in the United States. He opposed the recall of Californian Governor Gray Davis, and stated in an interview that replacing Davis with Arnold Schwarzenegger would be a mistake.
Ford began flight training in the 1960s at Wild Rose Airport in Wild Rose, Wisconsin, flying in a Piper PA-22 Tri-Pacer, but at $15 an hour he was unable to continue the training. His interest returned in the mid-1990s when he bought a used Gulfstream II and asked one of his pilots, Terry Bender, to give him flying lessons. They started flying a Cessna 182 out of Jackson, Wyoming. He later switched to Teterboro, New Jersey, flying a Cessna 206, the aircraft he soloed in.
On October 23, 1999, Harrison Ford was involved in the crash of a Bell 206L4 LongRanger helicopter (N36R). The NTSB accident report states that Ford was piloting the aircraft over the Lake Piru riverbed near Santa Clarita, California, on a routine training flight. While making his second attempt at an autorotation with powered recovery Ford allowed the aircraft's altitude to drop to 150–200 feet before beginning power up. As a result the aircraft was unable to recover power before hitting the ground. The aircraft landed hard and began skidding forward in the loose gravel before one of its skids struck a partially embedded log and flipped onto its side. Neither Ford nor the instructor pilot suffered any injuries though the helicopter was seriously damaged. When asked about the incident by fellow pilot James Lipton in an interview on the TV show Inside the Actor's Studio Ford replied "I broke it."
Ford keeps his aircraft at Santa Monica Airport, though the Bell 407 is often kept and flown in Jackson, Wyoming, and has been used by the actor in two mountain rescues during the actor's assigned duty time assisting the Teton County Search and Rescue. On one of the rescues Ford recovered a hiker who had become lost and disoriented. She boarded Ford's Bell 407 and promptly vomited into one of the rescuers' caps (she says it was not Ford's cap), unaware of who the pilot was until much later, saying, "I can't believe I barfed in Harrison Ford's helicopter!"
Ford flies his de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver (N28S) more than any of his other aircraft, and although he dislikes showing favoritism, he has repeatedly stated that he likes this aircraft and the sound of its Pratt & Whitney R-985 radial engine. Ford first encountered the Beaver while filming Six Days Seven Nights, and soon purchased one. Kenmore Air in Kenmore, Washington, restored Ford's yellow and green Beaver — a junked former U.S. military aircraft — with updated avionics and an upgraded engine. According to Ford, it had been flown in the CIA's Air America operations, and was riddled with bullet holes, which had to be patched up. He uses it regularly for impromptu fly-ins at remote airports and bush strips, as well as gatherings with other Beaver owners and pilots.
In March 2004, Ford officially became chairman of the Young Eagles program of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). Ford was asked to take the position by Greg Anderson, Senior Vice President of the EAA at the time, to replace General Charles "Chuck" Yeager who was vacating the post that he had held for many years. Ford at first was hesitant, but later accepted the offer and has made appearances with the Young Eagles at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh gathering at Oshkosh, Wisconsin for two years. In July 2005 at the gathering in Oshkosh Ford agreed to accept the position for another two years. Ford has flown over 280 children as part of the Young Eagles program, usually in his DHC-2 Beaver, which can seat the actor and five children. Ford is involved with the EAA chapter in Driggs, Idaho, just over the mountains from Jackson, Wyoming.
As of 2009, Ford appears in Web advertisements for General Aviation Serves America, a campaign by advocacy group AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association).
Ford is an Honorary Board Member of the humanitarian aviation organization Wings of Hope.
He has also flown as an invited VIP with the Blue Angels.
;Interviews
Category:Actors from California Category:Actors from Chicago, Illinois Category:American aviators Category:American conservationists Category:American actors of Russian descent Category:American people of German descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:California Democrats Category:Jewish actors Category:Living people Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:Personae non gratae Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Category:1942 births
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Paul Robeson |
|---|---|
| Caption | photo by Yousuf Karsh, 1938, June 1942 |
| Birth name | Paul Leroy Robeson |
| Born | April 09, 1898Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | January 23, 1976Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Genre | SpiritualsInternational folkMusicals |
| Voice type | Bass-Baritone |
| Occupation | Actor, concert singer, athlete, lawyer, social activist |
| Years active | 1917–1963 |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Name | Paul "Robey" Robeson |
|---|---|
| Position | End |
| Birthdate | April 9, 1898 |
| Deathdate | January 23, 1976 |
| Heightft | 6 |
| Heightin | 3 |
| Weight | 219 |
| Debutyear | 1921 |
| Debutteam | Akron Pros |
| Finalyear | 1922 |
| Finalteam | Milwaukee Badgers |
| College | Rutgers |
| Teams | |
| Statseason | 1922 |
| Statlabel1 | Games played |
| Statvalue1 | 15 |
| Statlabel2 | Games started |
| Statvalue2 | 13 |
| Statlabel3 | TD |
| Statvalue3 | 1 |
| Nfl | ROB361120 |
| Collegehof | 10080 |
Paul Leroy Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an African American bass-baritone concert singer, recording artist, athlete and actor who became noted for his political radicalism and activism in the civil rights movement. The son of an escaped slave, Robeson was the first major concert star to popularize the performance of Negro spirituals and was the first black actor of the 20th century to portray Shakespeare's Othello on Broadway.
A nationally renowned football player from 1917 to the early 1920s, Robeson was an All-American athlete, Phi Beta Kappa Society laureate during his years at Rutgers University. In 1923, Robeson drifted into amateur theater work and within a decade he had become an international star of stage, screen, radio and film. Robeson would go on to be a recipient of the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, the Stalin Peace Prize and of honorary memberships in over half a dozen trade unions. James Earl Jones, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte have cited Robeson's lead film roles as being the first to display dignity for black actors and pride in African heritage. Though one of the most internationally famous people of the 20th century, blacklisting during the Cold War has largely kept Paul Robeson out of mainstream interpretations of history. Under heavy and daily surveillance by both the FBI and the CIA and publicly condemned for his beliefs, Robeson became very nearly a non-person. Robeson's right to travel was restored in 1958 and his already faltering health broke down under controversial circumstances in 1963. By 1965, he was forced into permanent retirement. He would spend his final years in seclusion, unapologetic about his political views and career. Present day advocates and historians of Paul Robeson's legacy have worked successfully to restore his name to numerous history books and sports records, while honoring his memory globally with posthumous recognitions.
Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey in 1898. His father, William Drew Robeson I, was descended from the Igbo people of Nigeria, and had run away during the American Civil War from the Robeson plantation in North Carolina where he had been born a slave. He served in the Union Army in Pennsylvania, earned a degree from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), and became a minister of the gospel.
From 1881 until 1901, William Robeson was minister of the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton. Robeson refused to bow to pressure from the "white residents of Princeton" to cease his tendency to "speak out against social injustice." Rev. Robeson's wife, Maria Louisa Bustill, belonged to a white abolitionist Quaker family. Nearly blind, she died in a house fire in 1904 when her son Paul was six years old.
The Robeson's had four other children: William Drew Robeson II, a physician who practiced in Washington, D.C.; Benjamin Robeson, also minister; Reeve Robeson (called Reed); and Marian Robeson, who lived in Philadelphia. William Drew Robeson was said to be a stern disciplinarian when it came to the children's studies and behavior. In 1910, when the family relocated to Somerville, New Jersey, he continued to impress upon Paul that he could achieve anything that white people could.
Though Robeson later said he gave thought to quitting, he went on to be considered by many critics the greatest football player of his era. The football coach, Walter Camp, later described him as "the greatest defensive end to ever trot the gridiron." Lou Little of Columbia University football said of Robeson, "...there has never been a greater player in the history of football than Robeson."
He played professional football in the American Professional Football Association (later called the National Football League) with the Akron Pros and Milwaukee Badgers. He served as assistant football coach at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he was initiated into the Nu Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity for African American college men.32 He also played for the St. Christopher Club traveling basketball team during their 1918–19 season, alongside future Basketball Hall of Fame members Clarence "Fats" Jenkins and James "Pappy" Ricks, and former Hampton Institute star center Charles Bradford.
While still a Columbia student, his first stage roles were in 1922 playing Simon in Simon the Cyrenian at the Harlem YMCA and Jim in Taboo (later renamed Vodoo) at the Sam Harris Theater in Harlem. Also in 1922, Eubie Blake heard Robeson sing casually and encouraged him to appear in Blake's production of Shuffle Along and Lew Leslie's "Plantation Revue." While pursuing his fledgling career in theater, including a tour of the British Isles with Taboo,
Robeson graduated from Columbia in 1923, in the same law school class as William O. Douglas — later a United States Supreme Court Justice. Ultimately Robeson's academic record was not as stellar as it had been at Rutgers, with a mostly C average and he openly showed little enthusiasm for the law after graduation. His broken tenure at the school due to his work in theater made him ineligible when considered as a possible candidate for the Columbia Law Review by editor-in-chief Charles Ascher who in later years remarked that the "Southerners on the board would have put up a fight..." In the 1930s, the couple began legal proceedings towards divorce when Robeson fell in love with Yolanda Jackson, a British woman, but the relationship ended abruptly, and Eslanda and Robeson stayed together, continuing an open marriage until Eslanda died on December 23, 1965. Eslanda would also author the first book on Robeson entitled, "Paul Robeson: Negro." Told in third person it was part fiction, part tell all memoir about the problems in their marriage and Robeson early life and career. It is in "Paul Robeson: Negro" that the incorrect usage of "Bustill" as Robeson's middle name originated, as Eslanda chose to add it as an embellishment.
The marriage produced one child, Paul Robeson, Jr., born November 2, 1927. Paul Robeson Jr., lives in New Jersey with Marilyn, his wife of 61 years, and has spent much of his life safeguarding his father's legacy by founding The Robeson Family Archives and The Paul Robeson Foundation. He also fathered two children, David Robeson (1951–1998) and Susan Robeson, a documentary filmmaker born in 1953. In 1980, Susan published a pictorial biography of her grandfather.
Lawrence Brown, who had previously worked with the gospel singer Roland Hayes, had an extensive repertoire of African-American folk songs. Both he and Robeson helped bring these to much wider attention both inside the U.S. and abroad. With Robeson's wife Eslanda arranging concert venues, Paul Robeson became a hugely popular concert draw in New York City with Carl Sandburg drawing a distinction between his interpretations of spirituals and Roland Hayes' stating that "Hayes imitates white culture... Robeson is the real thing... ." Robeson could also be heard on New York radio, usually performing Negro Spirituals, as he did on June 7, 1927 when he was one of the featured performers on the Edison Hour over station WRNY (display ad, New York Times, June 7, 1927, p. 32). Robeson also became interested in the folk music of the world; his standard repertoire after the 1920s would include songs in many languages including languages as diverse as Chinese, Russian, Yiddish and German.
Robeson also played the role of Toussaint L'Ouverture in the 1936 play "Black Majesty" by C.L.R. James alongside the actor Robert Adams. To play the part had been a long time goal of Robeson's but the production closed after two weeks. Adams would go on to co-star in two of Robeson's films, Song of Freedom and King Solomon's Mines and found the Negro Repertory Arts Theater in Great Britain.
I learned my militancy and my politics, from your Labor Movement here in Britain.... That was how I realized that the fight of my Negro people in America and the fight of oppressed workers everywhere was the same struggle.
In 1928, while he was performing in Show Boat, Robeson met a group of unemployed miners who had taken part in a "hunger march" from South Wales to protest their poverty and harsh working conditions. After taking the men for their first meal in days he became determined to help their cause, visited the Rhondda Valley and the Talygarn Miners' Rest Home. Robeson made several visits to Welsh mining areas to perform in Cardiff, Neath and Aberdare.
In 1934, he performed in Caernarfon to benefit the victims of a major disaster at Gresford Colliery, near Wrexham, where 264 miners died. In 1938, he performed in front of an audience of 7,000 at the Welsh International Brigades National Memorial in Mountain Ash, to commemorate the 33 men from Wales killed while fighting on the side of the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War. Because of his willingness to stand with the Welsh miners, he became a popular cultural figure in Wales. In 1940, Robeson appeared in The Proud Valley, playing a black laborer who arrives in the Rhondda and wins the hearts of the local people. Robeson would often stay in Tiger Bay with his uncle by marriage, Aaron Mossell, a black Communist active in Pan-Africanism.
In 1938, Robeson appeared in Plant in the Sun, a play dealing with sit-down strikes and union organizing in US, produced by Unity Theatre, under auspices of British Labour Party. An English Heritage Blue Plaque was unveiled in 2002 by Dame Cleo Laine and 24 Hour Museum Chairman Loyd Grossman, at 1-2 Branch Lane, Hampstead, London where Robeson primarily resided during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1998, Labour politician Tony Benn stated that Robeson's "experiences with racism as child gave him an authenticity that you would not have gotten from reading Karl Marx in the salons of the intellectuals."
Here, I am not a Negro but a human being for the first time in my life ... I walk in full human dignity. "
Robeson also took great interest in Article 123 of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, banning racial discrimination. The article stated: "Equality of rights of citizens of the USSR, irrespective of their nationality or race, in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life, is an indefeasible law." Commenting in 1935 to the Daily Worker, on the recent execution after court-martial of a number of counter-revolutionary terrorists, Robeson said: "From what I have already seen of the workings of the Soviet Government, I can only say that anybody who lifts his hand against it ought to be shot! Robeson is one of only three people to have been given honorary membership in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the volunteers from the United States who served in the Spanish Civil War for the International Brigades.
As fascism escalated in Europe, "Save Spain" rallies were organized. The first rally was at the Albert Hall in 1937 sponsored by W.H. Auden, Virginia Wolff and H.G. Wells among others as a benefit concert for the National Joint Committee for Spanish Refugees in Aid of the Basque Refugee Children’s Fund. The event was broadcast by radio throughout Europe and Robeson delivered a speech that night that would be among his most memorable and serve as his epitaph.
The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative. The history of the capitalist era is characterized by the degradation of my people:despoiled of their lands, their culture destroyed...denied equal protection under law, and deprived their rightful place in the respect of their fellows. Not through blind faith or coercion but conscious of my course, I take my place with you."
By December 1937 Robeson had addressed four rallies for the Republican cause. He had also denounced fascist attacks on Ethiopia by Italy and spoke out in favor of the emerging Communist revolution in China at other political events raising the concern of his British entertainment manager about becoming a political artist. Robeson decided to establish his political events as primary, explaining to the press that, "something inside me has turned"; no longer would he appear in "decadent Hollywood films", he stated, but instead would portray "the life, hopes and aspirations of the struggling people from which I come." At the Albert Hall rally, he changed the lyrics of "Old Man River"—personalizing the song into his own credo from, "I'm tired of livin and scared of dyin" to "I must keep fightin' until I'm dyin'." He also stated, "The liberation of Spain from the oppression of fascist reactionaries is not a private matter of the Spaniards, but the common cause of all advanced and progressive humanity." Robeson met with the American men and women of The Abraham Lincoln Brigade on the battlefields, including about ninety-five African Americans. Robeson left Spain but continued to speak on behalf of those who were resisting Hitler and Mussolini. He raised funds for the Spanish Republic, and to aid returning wounded Lincoln veterans in need of medical care.
Members of the CAA were hopeful that following World War II, when Western Powers adopted new resolutions on the issue of colonialism, there would be a move towards Third World independence under the trusteeship of the United Nations. To the CAA's dismay, the proposals introduced by the U.S. government to the conference in April/May 1945 set no clear limits on the duration of colonialism and no motions towards allowing territorial possessions to move towards self government. In an interview published in all the black weeklies and the July–August issue of TAC, magazine of the Theatre Arts Committee, Robeson was asked what prompted his decision to return to the US to live, he replied: "I've learned that my people are not the only ones oppressed. That it is the same for Jews or Chinese as for Negroes, and that such prejudice has no place in a democracy. I have sung my songs all over the world, and everywhere found that some common bond makes the people of all lands take to Negro songs, as to their own....{A]ll oppressed people cry out against their oppressors....[These experiences] have made me come home to sing my songs so that we will see that our democracy does not vanish. If I can contribute to this as an artist, I shall be happy."
The same year, in Hollywood, Robeson participated in the anthology film Tales of Manhattan. His segment depicted black people's living conditions under the sharecropping system. Robeson was dissatisfied, calling it "very offensive to my people. It makes the Negro childlike and innocent and is in the old plantation hallelujah shouter tradition". He attempted to remove the film from distribution but buying up all prints proved far too expensive. Robeson held a press conference, announcing that he would no longer act in Hollywood films because of the demeaning roles available to black actors and would gladly join others in picketing the film.During this period, Robeson also turned down major black roles in Moby Dick, Gone With The Wind, Song of the South and Porgy and Bess.
"We in America do not forget that it was the backs of white workers from Europe and on the backs of millions of Blacks that the wealth of America was built. And we are resolved to share it equally. We reject any hysterical raving that urges us to make war on anyone. Our will to fight for peace is strong. We shall not make war upon the Soviet Union. We oppose those who wish to support imperialism Germany and to establish fascism in Greece. We wish peace with Franco's Spain despite her fascism. We shall support peace and friendship among all nations, with Soviet Russia and the People's Republics. "
What came over the wires to news agencies via the AP in the United States was as follows,
"We colonial peoples have contributed to the building of the United States and are determined to share its wealth. We denounce the policy of the United States government which is similar to Hitler and Goebbels. We want peace and liberty and will combat for them along with the Soviet Union and the Democracies of Eastern Europe, China and Indonesia. It is unthinkable that American Negros would go to war on behalf of those who have oppressed us for generations against the Soviet Union which in one generation has lifted our people to full human dignity. "
Research by historians would later show through time records that the AP had put the dispatch on the wires as Robeson was starting his speech. The misquote was very similar in structure to previous Robeson speeches and his questioning at the Mundt-Nixon Bill hearings with the difference being that at the hearing Robeson had claimed to be only speaking for himself. The reaction by the press, both liberal and right wing, in the United States was nearly universal condemnation with radio commentator Walter Winchell broadcasting daily vitriolic attacks at Robeson approved by J Edgar Hoover. Jersey Home newspaper called for Robeson to be "executed in the electric chair"and Boston Sunday called him "an undesirable citizen," regretting that he had been "U.S. born." Without contacting Robeson and at the urging of the State Department to make a formal statement, the NAACP leaders Roy Wilkins and Walter White also dissociated themselves from him. The few papers willing to question accuracy of the AP bulletin was The black owned, Chicago Defender while the progressive National Guardian and the Communist Daily Worker printed quotes of Robeson's speech verbatim. The French transcript of the speech is available to scholars in the Paul Robeson Archives and was published in full in the bulletin of the Paris Peace Congress(PERC).
Back in the United States, Robeson stated that he did not encounter any persecution of Jews and other political prisoners, stating that he "met Jewish people all over the place.... I heard no word about it". Herbert Hill former labor director of the NACCP, commented on the reputed event fifty years later stating "just think what it would have meant if he had denounced this evil while in the Soviet Union and instead he comes back and he lies, he lies again and again and he knows better." Paul Robeson, Jr. said "he wasn't about to come to the United States and criticize the Soviet Union which in his mind was a barrier to world domination by the right wing of the United States."
HUAC sought Jackie Robinson's testimony on the subject. Robinson was reluctant to testify to HUAC on these matters, in part because of Robeson's prior advocacy on behalf of integration in professional baseball. In July 1949, Robinson eventually agreed to testify before HUAC, fearing that declining to do so might negatively and permanently damage his career. His testimony was a major media event, with Robinson's carefully-worded statement appearing on the front page of The New York Times the following day.While Robeson declined to comment on Robinson personally: "I am not going to permit the issue to boil down to a personal feud between me and Jackie. To do that, would be to do exactly what the other group wants us to do."
The rescheduled event, on September 4, 1949, was attended by 20,000 people and went off without incident but, after the concert, a violent mob, caught on film by the press, chanting "Go back to Russia you white Niggers" and "Dirty Kikes", threw rocks through the windshields of cars and buses. Standing off the angry mob of rioters, some of the concertgoers, and union members, along with writer Howard Fast and others assembled a non-violent line of resistance, locked arms, and sang the song "We Shall Not Be Moved." Some people were reportedly dragged from their vehicles and beaten. Over 140 people were injured and numerous vehicles were severely damaged as police stood by. Following the riots, more than 300 Robeson supporters went to Albany to voice their indignation to Governor Thomas Dewey, who refused to meet with them, blaming "Communists for provoking the violence." Twenty-seven plaintiffs filed a civil suit against Westchester County and two veterans groups. The charges were dismissed three years later. Paul Robeson called the actions of the New York state troopers, who were caught on film beating concert goers, including World War I veteran and first decorated Black aviator, Eugene Bullard, as "Fascist stormtroopers who will knock down and club anyone who disagrees with them" Photographs of Eugene Bullard being beaten by two policeman, a state trooper and concert-goer were later published in Susan Robeson's pictorial biography of her grandfather.
Because of the controversy surrounding him, Paul Robeson's recordings and films lost mainstream distribution. During the height of the Cold War it became increasingly difficult in the United States to hear Robeson sing on commercial radio, buy his music or to see any of his films, including Show Boat. In the United States very little media footage of Robeson now exists, including in the library of congress, as the majority of U.S. newsreel footage has been either destroyed or has the sound erased. Martin Duberman wrote that "Robeson became an outcast, very nearly a nonperson."
In a symbolic act of defiance against the travel ban, labor unions in the U.S. and Canada organized a concert at the International Peace Arch on the border between Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia on May 18, 1952. Paul Robeson stood on the back of a flat bed truck on the American side of the U.S.-Canada border and performed a concert for a crowd on the Canadian side, variously estimated at between 20,000 and 40,000 people. Robeson returned to perform a second concert at the Peace Arch in 1953, and over the next two years two further concerts were scheduled. (Officially, the travel ban did not prevent Robeson from entering Canada, as travel across the Canada-United States border did not require a passport, but the State Department directly intervened to block Robeson from traveling to Canada.) In 1956, Robeson left the United States for the first time since the travel ban was imposed, performing concerts in two Canadian cities, Sudbury and Toronto, in March of that year. The travel ban ended in 1958 when Robeson’s passport was returned to him after eight years.
"USIE in the Gold Coast, and I suspect everywhere else in Africa, badly needs a through-going, sympathetic and regretful but straight talking treatment of the whole Robeson episode...there's no way the Communists score on us more easily and more effectively out here, than on the US. Negro problem in general, and on the Robeson case in particular. And, answering the latter, we go a long way toward answering the former. "
The finished article published by the NAACP was called Paul Robeson: Lost Shepherd, penned under the false name of "Robert Alan", whom the NAACP claimed was a "well known New York journalist." Another article by Roy Wilkins, called "Stalin's Greatest Defeat", denounced Robeson as well as the Communist Party of the USA in terms consistent with the FBI's information. declaration at The Paris Peace Conference in 1949, that African Americans would not support the United States in a war with the Soviet Union because of their continued lynchings and second-class citizen status under law following World War II, Roy Wilkins stated that regardless of the number of lynchings that were occurring or would occur, Black America would always serve in the armed forces. Wilkins also threatened to cancel a charter of an NAACP youth group in 1952 if they did not cancel their planned Robeson concert.
Robeson's name was also retroactively struck from the roster of the 1917 and 1918 college All-America football team. Robeson's name would not be fully restored to the Rutgers University sports records until 45 years later in 1995. The 1950 volume, College Football Hall of Fame, labeled "the most complete record on college football," also omits Robeson, identifying only a ten-man team.In November 2010, BBC Two premiered a documentary on American social movements entitled American Dream: Plenty and Paranoid, with interviewee and Robeson family friend Pete Seeger, alongside extensive footage of the Peekskill Riots, but included no mention of Robeson.
"...when he spotted a group of local aborigines shyly hanging back, he instantly headed for them, moving through the crowd like a full back. When he reached them, he literally gathered the nearest half dozen in his great arms, and when he moved toward his waiting transport, the aborigines moved with him. Davies heard one of the little girls say, almost in wonder, 'Mum, he likes us.'"Lloyd Davis felt that Robeson's words and gestures during his tour "gave a tremendous boost to the aboriginal cause"
Robeson was never to return to Australia and New Zealand, due to poor health. Back in London, he began to plan his return to the U.S. to participate in the Civil Rights Movement, stopping off in Africa, China and Cuba along the way. His wife Eslanda argued to stay in London, fearing that he'd be "killed" if he returned to the US and "unable to make any money" due to harassment by the US government. Robeson disagreed and made his own travel arrangements stopping off in Moscow in March 1961.It was there that he cut his wrists and was hospitalized a few weeks after arriving. His severe health problems began and would not fully abate for the next five years.
During his treatment at the Priory, Robeson was being monitored by the British MI5. Both U.S. and British intelligence services were well aware of Robeson's suicidal state of mind. An FBI memo described Robeson's debilitated condition, remarking that his "death would be much publicized" and would be used for Communist propaganda, making continued surveillance imperative. Numerous memos also advised that Robeson should be denied a passport renewal which would ostensibly jeopardize his fragile health and the recovery process he was engaged in overseas. He remembered that his father had such fears prior to his prostrate operation, and documented that three doctors treating Robeson in London and New York had been CIA contractors. Martin Duberman posits that given the most available evidence, Paul Robeson's health breakdown was brought on most by a combination of factors including extreme emotional and physical stress, bipolar depression, exhaustion and the beginning of circulatory and heart problems. Duberman added that "even without an organic predisposition and accumulated pressures of government harassment he might have been susceptible to a breakdown
Condolences came from around the world, including Coretta Scott King, who deplored "America's inexcusable treatment" of a man who had had "the courage to point out her injustices." According to Robeson biographer, Martin Duberman:
"The white press, after decades of harassing Robeson, now tipped its hat to a 'great American,' paid its gingerly respect in editorials that ascribed the vituperation leveled at Robeson in his lifetime to the Bad Old Days of the Cold War, implied those days were forever gone, downplayed the racist component central to his persecution, and ignored the continuing inability of white America to tolerate a black maverick who refused to bend. The black press made no such mistakes. It had never, overall, been as hostile to Robeson as the white press, (though at some points in his career, nearly so)." Thousands more, mostly African Americans, stood outside in the rain throughout the service, listening on the public address system as speakers, including Harry Belafonte, paid tribute. The archives were founded by Victor Grossman, a journalist for GDR radio and are now located at the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin. Due to meticulous collecting by Eslanda Robeson, over 55,000 pieces of Robeson related memorabilia, film, books, photos and ephemera were archived and cataloged into "The Paul and Eslanda Robeson Archives." Formally established in 1973, the archives are closed to the public but open to select scholars. The collection is housed at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.
Posthumous honors
1970s
The first memorial following Robeson's 1976 funeral was a tribute held in US House of Representatives January 28, 1976. Throughout 1976 memorials were held at Rutgers; The World Peace Council in Athens, Greece; Columbia University, New York City; Toronto; Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.; and by Actor's Equity in Los Angeles. and art gallery after him. and Rutgers University New Brunswick Campus named one of their cultural centers, The Paul Robeson Cultural Center. In addition, the Rutgers-Camden campus also named their library, the Paul Robeson Library.During the centenary of Paul Robeson's birth in 1998, around the world, over four hundred celebrations took place with over twenty Robeson centennial events held in the San Francisco Bay area alone. These included film showings, musical and educational programs, art exhibitions, a two-hour PBS documentary, as well as the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. President Bill Clinton sent a greeting to celebration of the Robeson Centennial in Westchester County, New York, stating: “A century after Paul Robeson’s birth, we live in a nation that is stronger because of his vision and eloquent voice.”
In 1998 the San Francisco Bay Area Post of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade presented "Paul Robeson: The Artist Must Take Sides" in tribute. The program consisted of a dramatic performance by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, with slides and commentary, and keynote speaker Professor Sterling Stuckey. Paul Robeson's image is also featured prominently in a historical monument dedicated to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade which was unveiled on The Embarcadero, San Francisco in 2008 by actor Peter Coyote.
2000s
Robeson has remained a celebrated cultural figure in Wales. The exhibition Let Paul Robeson Sing! was unveiled in Cardiff in 2001, then toured several Welsh towns and cities. A number of Welsh artists have celebrated Robeson's life: the Manic Street Preachers' song "Let Robeson Sing" appears on the album Know Your Enemy. The band also covered "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?"— the spiritual sung by Robeson as part of his 1957 telephone performance. The play Paul Robeson Knew My Father by Greg Cullen, set in the Rhondda during the 1950s, features a character with a childhood obsession for Robeson's music and films. Martyn Joseph's song "Proud Valley Boy" on his 2005 album Deep Blue is also based on Robeson's Welsh connections. In 2010 Susan Robeson, as an honorary fellow of Swansea University, visited Ebbw Vale and at the 2010 Eisteddfod launched a project by the university, in conjunction with the Paul Robeson Wales Trust and the Welsh Assembly, to create an online learning resource in her grandfather's memory.In 2004 Paul Robeson was featured on a US postage stamp. The Paul Robeson Commemorative Postage Stamp is the 27th stamp in the Black Heritage Series.The national Stamp Unveiling Ceremony was held on January 20, 2004 at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, Robeson’s birthplace, with Paul Robeson, Jr. participating. On September 26, 2009, Edgecombe Avenue and 160th Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan, were renamed as Paul Robeson Boulevard and Count Basie Place. The corner is the location of 555 Edgecombe Avenue, also known as the Paul Robeson Home, a National Historic Landmarked building where Paul Robeson and Count Basie lived.
An "heirloom tomato" has been named after Paul Robeson.
Filmography
Body and Soul (1924) Camille (1926) Borderline (1930) The Emperor Jones (1933) Sanders of the River (1935) Show Boat (1936) Song of Freedom (1936) Big Fella (1937) My Song Goes Forth (1937) King Solomon's Mines (1937) Jericho/Dark Sands (1937) The Proud Valley (1940) Native Land (1942) Tales of Manhattan (1942) The Song of the Rivers (1954)
Works
Robeson, Paul. Here I Stand. Beacon Press (1958), (1971 edition with Preface by Lloyd L. Brown), (January 1, 1998). 160 pages. ISBN 0-8070-6445-9. Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, Interviews, 1918–1974, edited with an introduction by Philip S. Foner, Brunner, 1978.
Edited collections of writings
Paul Robeson: Tributes, Selected Writings, compiled and edited by Roberta Yancy Dent with the assistance of Marilyn Robeson and Paul Robeson, Jr., The Archives, 1976. (Contributor) "The Great Forerunner", Freedomways, 1971, new edition, Dodd, 1978, enlarged, 1985.
See also
Paul Robeson High School, a four year (9th–12th grades) business and technology high school in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood
Notes
References
Balaji, Murali. The Professor and the Pupil: The Politics and Friendship of W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson (Nation Books, 2007) ISBN 1-56858-355-9 Bogle, Donald (2001). Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, Fourth Edition Boyle, Sheila Tully, and Andrew Bunie (2001). Paul Robeson: The Years of Promise and Achievement. University of Massachusetts Press ISBN 1-55849-149-X Brown, Lloyd (1998) On My Journey Now: The Young Paul Robeson Basic Books ISBN 0813331773 Du Bois, Shirley Graham. Paul Robeson, Citizen of the World. (Julian Messner, June 1, 1971) ISBN 0-671-32464-0; (Greenwood Pub Group, January 1, 1972) ISBN 0-86543-468-9; (Africa World Pr, January 1, 1998), ISBN 0-86543-469-7; (Africa World Pr, April 1, 1998), ISBN 0-8371-6055-3 Duberman, Martin Bauml (1988). Paul Robeson Alfred A. Knopf, 1988. Also Reissue edition (1995) New Press. ISBN 1-56584-288-X. Dorinson, Joseph and William Pencak with foreword by Henry Foner. Paul Robeson: Essays on His Life and Legacy (Oct 15, 2004) ISBN 0-7864-1153-8; Foner, Philip S. Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, and Interviews, a Centennial Celebration. Citadel Press; Reprint edition (September 1, 1982). 644 pages. ISBN 0-8065-0815-9. Ford, Carin T (2001). Paul Robeson: "I Want to make Freedom Ring". Enslow Publishers Holmes, Burnham. ''Paul Robeson: A Voice of Struggle (Heinemann Library, September 1, 1994) ISBN 0-8114-2381-6 Larsen, Rebecca. Paul Robeson: Hero Before His Time (Franklin Watts, September 1, 1989), ISBN 0-531-10779-5 McKissack, Pat, Fredrick McKissack and Michael David Biegel (illustrator). Paul Robeson: A Voice to Remember. Library (Enslow Pub Inc, May 1, 2001), ISBN 0-89490-310-1 Nash, Elizabeth. "Autobiographical Reminiscences of African-American Classical Singers, 1853-Present".(Edwin Mellen Press, 2007). ISBN 0-7734-5250-8.(192-194, 438-445) Nollen, Scott Allen (2010). Paul Robeson: Film Pioneer.. McFarland. ISBN 0786435208 Nash, Elizabeth. "Autobiographical Reminiscences of African-American Classical Singers, 1853-Present".(Edwin Mellen Press, 2007). ISBN 0-7734-5250-8.(192-194, 438-445) Robeson, Eslanda. Paul Robeson, Negro, V. Gollancz; 1st edition (1930) ASIN: B0006E8ML4 Robeson Jr., Paul. (1971) "Paul Robeson: Black Warrior", in Freedomways The Great Forerunner, pages 3–16 Robeson Jr., Paul. The Undiscovered Paul Robeson , An Artist's Journey, 1898-1939.(Wiley; 1St edition (March 2, 2001) ISBN 0471242659 Robeson Jr., Paul. The Undiscovered Paul Robeson, Quest for Freedom, 1940-1976(Wiley; 1St Edition edition (January 26, 2010) ISBN 0471409731 Robeson, Susan (1981). The Whole World in His Hands: A Pictorial Biography of Paul Robeson Citadel Press; 1st edition ISBN 0806507543 Reiner, Carl. How Paul Robeson Saved My Life and Other Mostly Happy Stories (Cliff Street Books, October 1, 1999), Cassette/Spoken Word (Dove Entertainment Inc, October 1, 1999). ISBN 0-06-019451-0 Seton, Marie (1958). Paul Robeson. D. Dobson. Stewart, Jeffrey C. (editor); Paul Robeson Cultural Center; Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum (corporate author). Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen. Hardcover (Rutgers Univ Pr, April 1, 1998) ISBN 0-8135-2510-1, Paperback (Rutgers Univ Pr, April 1, 1998) ISBN 0-8135-2511-X Stuckey, Sterling. I Want to Be African: Paul Robeson and the Ends of Nationalist Theory and Practice, 1919–1945 (Univ of California Center for Afro, June 1, 1976) ISBN 0-934934-15-0 Wright, Charles. Paul Robeson: Labor's Forgotten Champion (Balamp Pub Co; First Printing edition (June 1975)) ISBN 0913642061 Wright, David K. Paul Robeson: Actor, Singer, Political Activist (Univ of California Center for Afro, June 1, 1976) ISBN 0-934934-15-0 Rappaport, Louis. Stalin's War Against the Jews: The Doctors Plot & The Soviet Solution, Free Press (October 1, 1990) ISBN 0-02-925821-9 Turner, Charlotte (1986). Paul Robeson's Last Days in Philadelphia
Further reading
Film documentaries concerning Paul Robeson
The Tallest Tree in Our Forest (1977) (1979) (1998) directed by St. Clair Bourne. PBS American Masters (1999), Winstar Home Entertainment.
External links
The Paul Robeson Foundation, Inc. Paul Robeson digital archive at Rutgers University The Bay Area Paul Robeson Centennial Committee The Robeson Centennial Celebration Rutgers Celebrates the Paul Robeson Stamp Paul Robeson Awards The Paul Robeson Collection Testimony of Paul Robeson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, June 12, 1956 The Freedom Archives American Masters: Paul Robeson Paul Robeson Cultural Center The FBI Files of Paul Robeson Discography Paul Robeson singing the English version of the U.S.S.R. anthem Tony Benn">BBC site celebrating Robeson with contributions by Tony Benn Paul Robeson sings "Just a-Wearyin' for You" w. Frank Lebby Stanton m. Carrie Jacobs-Bond Paul Robeson sings "A Perfect Day" by Carrie Jacobs-Bond Paul Robeson in Berlin with Aubrey Pankey Photographed in 1960
Category:1898 births Category:1976 deaths Category:African American actors Category:African American basketball players Category:African Americans' rights activists Category:Akron Pros players Category:Alumni of the School of Oriental and African Studies Category:American basses Category:American film actors Category:American folk singers Category:American football tight ends Category:American lawyers Category:American people of Igbo descent Category:American socialists Category:Basketball players from New Jersey Category:Burials at Ferncliff Cemetery Category:Columbia Law School alumni Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Milwaukee Badgers players Category:Operatic basses Category:People from Princeton, New Jersey Category:Progressive Party (United States, 1948) politicians Category:Rutgers Scarlet Knights football players Category:Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's basketball players Category:Rutgers University alumni Category:Spingarn Medal winners Category:Stalin Peace Prize recipients
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| Name | Walerian Borowczyk |
|---|---|
| Birthdate | September 2, 1923 |
| Birthplace | Kwilcz, Poland |
| Deathdate | February 3, 2006 |
| Deathplace | Paris, France |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Yearsactive | 1946 - 1988 |
| Imdb id | 0097259 |
Walerian Borowczyk (September 2, 1923 – February 3, 2006) was a Polish film director. He directed 40 films between 1946 and 1988. His career as a film director was mainly in France.
His early films were surreal animations, some only a few seconds long, including several comic abecedaria. His most acclaimed early films were Był sobie raz (Time Upon a Once) (1957) and Dom (House) (1958, with Jan Lenica). In 1959, he worked with Chris Marker for Les Astronautes. Major works of this period include the stop motion film Renaissance (1963), which uses reverse motion to depict various destroyed objects (a prayer book, a stuffed toy, etc.) re-assembling themselves, only to be destroyed again when the last object (a bomb) is complete, and the nightmarish Jeux des anges (1964), selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the ten best animated films of all time. In 1967, he directed his first animated feature film, Théâtre de Monsieur & Madame Kabal: un film dessiné pour les adultes (Mr. and Mrs. Kabal's Theatre).
Borowczyk moved into live-action feature film with Goto, l'île d'amour (Goto, Isle of Love) (1968) and Blanche (1971), both tales of illicit love thwarted by jealous husbands, and both starring his own wife, Ligia Branice. One of his most appreciated films of this period, Dzieje grzechu (A Story of Sin) (1975), which was nominated for Palme d'or, is an adaptation of a Polish literary classic by Stefan Żeromski. Like his 1966 short film Rosalie (a Guy de Maupassant adaptation and a Silver Bear winner), Dzieje grzechu had successfully rendered the themes of seduction and infanticide. Contes immoraux (Immoral Tales) (1974) and his later work, including Interno di un convento (Behind Convent Walls) (1977) (inspired by Promenades dans Rome of Stendhal) and Cérémonie d'amour (Rites of Love) (1988) have been controversial, lauded by some for their unique surrealist vision and derided by others as contentless pornography. Especially, La bête (The Beast, 1975) (based on the novel Lokis by Prosper Mérimée and originally conceived in 1972 as a film on its own, but then in 1974 as the fifth story in Contes immoraux) was seen by many as a decline in the director's career after Dzieje grzechu, except in France, where it was hailed by prominent critics such as Ado Kyrou. His 1980 film Lulu was based on the eponymous character created by Frank Wedekind.
In 1981, he made Docteur Jekyll et les femmes (Blood of Dr Jekyll), a version of the Jekyll and Hyde story starring Udo Kier and Patrick Magee and depicting Jekyll's transformation as a violent rebellion against the Victorian morality. In his 1988 book Nightmare Movies, Kim Newman described the film as "dark, misanthropic and interestingly offensive". He made a brief return to animation with his 1984 short film Scherzo infernal. In 1987, he directed Emmanuelle 5, an installment of the Emmanuelle series, that was also released in a hardcore video-only version. He was unhappy with the project due to a dispute concerning the casting of lead actress Monique Gabrielle. In 1988 and 1990, he directed four episodes for the series Série rose: Les Chefs d’œuvre de la littérature érotique on M6.
Many of Borowczyk's films use historical settings, including Ars Amandi: l'arte di amare (The Art of Love) (1983), set in the time of Ovid (and featuring the poet as a character); Blanche, set during the Middle Ages; and three of the four episodes in Contes immoraux, set respectively in the nineteenth century, the sixteenth century, and the Borgia papacy.
A number of his films (like the "tale" La Marée (The Tide) in Contes immoraux, the 1976 La Marge (The Streetwalker), the episode Marceline in Les Héroïnes du mal: Margherita, Marceline, Marie (Immoral Women) (1979), and Cérémonie d'amour were based on stories by André Pieyre de Mandiargues. A less usual product of this cooperation was Une collection particulière of 1973, a representation of Borowczyk's collection of pornographic items, with Mandiargues having written (and read) the narration.
Borowczyk was the author of two books; Anatomia diabła (Anatomy of Devil) (1992) and Moje polskie lata (My Polish Years) (2002).
He died of heart failure in Paris in 2006. He was 82 years old.
Category:1923 births Category:2006 deaths Category:People from Międzychód County Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in France Category:Polish animators Category:Stop motion animators Category:Polish film directors Category:Polish expatriates in France
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Michael Beckwith is an African-American, New Thought minister and founder of the Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City, California, a New Thought church with a congregation estimated in excess of 8,000 members. Beckwith was ordained in Religious Science in 1985.
In 1986, he founded the Agape International Spiritual Center, a transdenominational community which today counts a membership of 9,000 individuals who study and practice New Thought–Ancient Wisdom. Agape's outreach programs feed the homeless, serve incarcerated individuals and their families, advocate the preservation of the planet's environmental resources, and globally build and support orphanages whose children have survived the ravages of war and AIDS. Inspirations of the Heart, which was a Nautilus Book Award finalist; Forty Day Mind Fast Soul Feast; A Manifesto of Peace; and Living from the Overflow.
Beckwith has participated with the Dalai Lama and other New Thought ministers, such as Mary Manin Morrissey, in The Synthesis Dialogues. Beckwith also appeared in Dalai Lama Renaissance, a feature length documentary about the Dalai Lama, narrated by Harrison Ford.
In January 2009, Beckwith appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King live and a live webinar with Oprah Winfrey presenting his book, "Spiritual Liberation" and DVD of the same name.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Caption | Wahlberg at the Shooter premiere in London, March 2007 |
|---|---|
| Birthname | |
| Birth date | June 05, 1971 |
| Birth place | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Othername | Marky Mark Monk D |
| Occupation | ActorProducerRapper (former) |
| Yearsactive | 1989-present |
| Spouse | Rhea Durham (2009-present; 4 children) |
| Url | Official site |
After landing in prison following this assault he decided to change his ways. According to Wahlberg, "As soon as I began that life of crime, there was always a voice in my head telling me I was going to end up in jail. Three of my brothers had done time. My sister went to prison so many times I lost count. Finally I was there, locked up with the kind of guys I'd always wanted to be like. Now I'd earned my stripes and I was just like them and I realized it wasn't what I wanted at all. I'd ended up in the worst place I could possibly imagine and I never wanted to go back. First of all I had to learn to stay on the straight and narrow." Wahlberg first relied on the guidance of his parish priest to turn his back on crime. He told his street gang that he was leaving them and had "some serious fights" with them over it. The actor commented in 2009: "I've made a lot of mistakes in my life and I've done bad things. But I never blamed my upbringing for that. I never behaved like a victim so that I would have a convenient reason for victimizing others. Everything I did wrong was my own fault. I was taught the difference between right and wrong at an early age. I take full responsibility".
Wahlberg began recording as Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, earning a hit with "Good Vibrations" from the album Music for the People. The record was produced by brother Donnie and later hit #1 on The Billboard Hot 100, later becoming certified as a Platinum single. In the video, widely broadcast on music video channels, Mark was shown boxing, lifting weights and showing off his bare, well-muscled torso. The second single, "Wildside," peaked at #5 on Billboards Hot Singles Sales chart and at #10 on The Billboard Hot 100. It was certified as a Gold single. Marky Mark opened for the New Kids on the Block during their last tour. The second Marky Mark LP, You Are Something Special, was not as successful as the prior, yielding only a minor hit single in the title track. Wahlberg later collaborated with reggae / ragga singer Prince Ital Joe. The project combined rap and ragga vocals with strong eurodance music (as in the singles Happy People, United, Life in the Streets, and Babylon) courtesy of Frank Peterson and Alex Christensen as producers.
He briefly became embroiled in controversy when he appeared to endorse the homophobic comments made by Shabba Ranks when they appeared as guests on the British chat show The Word. When Ranks made the statement that "gays ought to be crucified", Wahlberg remained in silence at his comments, which made the public believe he agreed with them. He later publicly dissociated himself from Ranks' comments.
Mark's cocky, street-wise persona contributed to his fame. During concert performances, he was known for stripping to a pair of white briefs, gyrating his hips and rubbing his crotch. In the dedication of his 1992 book Marky Mark, co-authored with photographer Lynn Goldsmith, Wahlberg says in the preface that "I wanna dedicate this book to my cock". shot by Herb Ritts, following it with Calvin Klein television ads. In 1992 the Calvin Klein billboard in New York's Times Square featured Wahlberg exclusively. Annie Leibovitz also shot a famous session of Mark Wahlberg in underwear for Vanity Fair's annual Hall of Fame issue. He also made a workout video titled The Marky Mark Workout: Form... Focus... Fitness (ISBN 1-55510-910-1). Although Wahlberg made several sexual references in the video, it was passed as exempt from classification because he was able to disguise them with hip hop slang. Notably, he says to a female participant before doing an exercise, "If I get diesel (muscular), maybe I'll get some skins" (a reference to the labia). He also says "I can't get no coochie (a reference to a woman's vagina) without no Gucci", which was a phrase that Mark heard from a toilet attendant during his visit to London.
Wahlberg starred in the American football drama, Invincible, based on the true story of bartender Vince Papale. He is also the executive producer of the HBO series Entourage which is loosely based on his experiences in Hollywood. He also appeared as a foul-mouthed Massachusetts State Police detective in Martin Scorsese's critically acclaimed thriller, The Departed in 2006, which netted him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, and an NSFC Best Supporting Actor award.
Wahlberg has confirmed that he was approached to star in a sequel to The Departed, but it is still early in development. The sequel would reportedly revolve around the Staff Sergeant played by Wahlberg.
To prepare for his role in Shooter, Wahlberg attended long-range shooting training at Front Sight Firearms Training Institute near Pahrump, Nevada, and was able to hit a target at 2000 yards on his first day, a feat which took his instructor about six months to achieve. He has said in a number of interviews that he will retire at the age of 40 to concentrate on parenthood and professional golf. However, in early 2007 he indicated that the latter was no longer the plan as "his golf game is horrible". He played Jack Salmon, a leading role in Peter Jackson's film of The Lovely Bones. In 2007 he starred opposite Joaquin Phoenix in We Own the Night, a movie about a family of police officers in New York City. The movie also starred Robert Duvall and Eva Mendes.
Wahlberg will play the drug kingpin Jon Roberts in the remake of the 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys, which chronicles the story of the largest cocaine trafficker in Miami in the 1970s and 1980s, and he has persuaded Leonardo DiCaprio to play the supporting role.
He starred in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening as Eliot Moore, which premiered in movie theatres on June 13, 2008. The same year, he played the title role in Max Payne, based on a video game of the same name. While promoting Max Payne, Mark became involved in a feud with Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg and threatened to "crack that big (bleep)ing nose of his." Samberg had done an impression of Wahlberg in a Saturday Night Live skit titled "Mark Wahlberg Talks To Animals." However, Wahlberg later appeared in a follow-up skit parodying both the original skit, Samberg's impression of Wahlberg, and his own threats to Samberg.
Actively involved in charity, Wahlberg established the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation in May 2001 for the purpose of raising and distributing funds to youth service and enrichment programs.
Wahlberg has four tattoos done by various artists including Paul Timman. The tattoos include Sylvester the cat with Tweety in his mouth on his ankle, a tattoo of his initials MW with Wahlberg through them on his upper right arm, and a Bob Marley tattoo with "One Love" on his upper left arm. The final tattoo, which Wahlberg holds as his most meaningful, is the rosary tattoed around his neck, with a crucifix and the words "In God I Trust" resting over his heart.
Category:1971 births Category:1990s rappers Category:American film actors Category:American male models Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American rappers Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American television producers Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Living people Category:Actors from Massachusetts Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:American rappers of European descent Category:American people of French-Canadian descent Category:American people of Swedish descent
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| Name | Ambroise Paré |
|---|---|
| Caption | Ambroise Paré |
| Birth date | 1510 |
| Birth place | Laval, France |
| Death date | 20 December 1590 |
| Death place | Paris, France |
| Residence | |citizenship = France |
| Nationality | France |
| Field | Surgery |
| Author abbrev bot | |author_abbrev_zoo = |
| Religion | |footnotes = |signature = |
Paré also introduced the ligature of arteries instead of cauterization during amputation. To do this he designed the "Bec de Corbin" ("crow's beak"), a predecessor to modern haemostats. Although ligatures often spread infection, it still was an important breakthrough in surgical practice. During his work with injured soldiers, Paré documented the pain experienced by amputees which they perceive as sensation in the amputated limb. He believed that phantom pains occurred in the brain and are not the remnants of the limb, which is still the consensus of the medical community today.
Paré was also an important figure in the progress of obstetrics in the middle of the 16th century. He revived the practice of podalic version, and showed how even in cases of head presentation, surgeons with this operation could often deliver the infant safely, instead of having to dismember the infant and extract the infant piecemeal.
Paré was ably seconded by his pupil Jacques Guillemeau, who translated his work into Latin, and at a later period himself wrote a treatise on midwifery. An English translation of it was published in 1612 with the title Chylde Birth; or, The Happy Deliverie of Women.
In 1552, Paré was accepted into royal service of the Valois Dynasty under Henry II; he was however unable to cure the king's fatal blow to the head, which he received during a tournament in 1559. Paré stayed in the service of the Kings of France to the end of his life in 1590, serving Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III.
According to Henri IV's Prime Minister, Sully, Paré was a Huguenot and on 24 August 1572, the day of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Paré's life was saved when King Charles IX locked him in a clothes closet. He died in Paris in 1590. While there is evidence that Paré may have been sympathetic to the Huguenot cause, he was twice married, was buried, and had his children baptized into the Catholic faith.
A collection of Paré's works (he published these separately throughout his life, based on his experiences treating soldiers on the battlefield) was published at Paris in 1575. They were frequently reprinted, several editions appeared in German and Dutch, and among the English translations was that of (1665).
Ambroise Paré contributed both to the practice of surgical amputation and to the design of limb prostheses. He also invented some ocular prostheses,making artificial eyes from enameled gold, silver, porcelain and glass.
Category:1510s births Category:1590 deaths Category:People from Mayenne Category:French surgeons Category:16th-century French physicians Category:French medical writers Category:Military physicians
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
![Gąbin [ˈgɔmbin] is a town in Płock County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, with 4,230 inhabitants (2006).](http://web.archive.org./web/20110418211342im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/e9/37/af703c3f8f5f35e806883b079c02_thumb.jpg "Gąbin [ˈgɔmbin] is a town in Płock County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, with 4,230 inhabitants (2006).")
![The fine arts department of the Faculty of Arts and Science is housed in 1 Spadina Crescent. The Faculty of Arts and Science is the university's main undergraduate faculty, and administers most of the courses in the college system.[56] While the colleges are not entirely responsible for teaching duties,](http://web.archive.org./web/20110418211342im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/fb/4f/2d02694b7518b99560cca15bd64d_thumb.jpg "The fine arts department of the Faculty of Arts and Science is housed in 1 Spadina Crescent. The Faculty of Arts and Science is the university's main undergraduate faculty, and administers most of the courses in the college system.[56] While the colleges are not entirely responsible for teaching duties,")
