Jack Black

Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, musician and producer.

His acting career has been extensive, starring primarily in comedy films. He is known for his roles in High Fidelity (2000), Shallow Hal (2001), School of Rock (2003), King Kong (2005), The Holiday (2006), Nacho Libre (2006), Kung Fu Panda films (2008, 2011 and 2016), Tropic Thunder (2008), Bernie (2011) and Goosebumps (2015). He has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards. Black is the lead vocalist of the comedic rock group Tenacious D, which he formed in 1994 with friend Kyle Gass. They have released the albums Tenacious D, The Pick of Destiny, and Rize of the Fenix.

Early life

Thomas Jacob Black was born on August 28, 1969, in Santa Monica, California, the son of two satellite engineers, Judith Love (née Cohen), who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope and is also a writer, and Thomas William Black. His mother was born Jewish, and his father converted to Judaism. Black was raised in the Jewish faith, attending Hebrew school and celebrating a Bar Mitzvah. On a guest appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, he said his surname may have come from the occupational name of blacksmith.

60 Minutes

60 Minutes is an American newsmagazine television program broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation. In 2002, 60 Minutes was ranked #6 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time and in 2013, it was ranked #24 on TV Guide's 60 Best Series of All Time.The New York Times has called it "one of the most esteemed news magazines on American television".

Broadcast history

Early years

The program employed a magazine format, similar to that of the Canadian program W5, which premiered two years earlier. It pioneered many of the most important investigative journalism procedures and techniques, including re-editing interviews, hidden cameras, and "gotcha journalism" visits to the home or office of an investigative subject. Similar programs sprang up in Australia and Canada during the 1970s, as well as on local television news.

Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Shrader Lawrence (born August 15, 1990) is an American actress. Lawrence began her career in television, playing her first major role as a lead cast member on the TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show (2007–09). After transitioning into film, she gave her breakout performance in the independent drama Winter's Bone (2010). Her first major commercial success was playing Mystique in the fourth installment of the superhero franchise X-Men (2011–16).

Lawrence gained international fame for playing Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games film series (2012–15), which established her as the highest-grossing action heroine at that point. As a dramatic actress, she has collaborated with director David O. Russell on multiple films. Her starring role in Russell's romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook (2012) earned her the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, making her the second-youngest Best Actress Oscar winner ever. Lawrence also received Golden Globe Awards for her performances in Russell's comedy-dramas American Hustle (2013) and Joy (2015).

Jack Nicholson

John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, having performed for nearly 60 years. He is known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance and dark portrayals of excitable and psychopathic characters. In many of his films he played the "eternal outsider, the sardonic drifter", and someone who rebels against the social structure.

Nicholson's 12 Academy Award nominations make him the most nominated male actor in the Academy's history. Nicholson has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, one for the drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and the other for the romantic comedy As Good as It Gets (1997). He also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the comedy-drama Terms of Endearment (1983). Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards.

Nicholson is one of only two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s; the other is Michael Caine. He has won six Golden Globe Awards, and received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. In 1994, he became one of the youngest actors to be awarded the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award.

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II (US ⁱ/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician serving as the 44th President of the United States, the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at University of Chicago Law School between 1992 and 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, and ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the United States House of Representatives in 2000 against incumbent Bobby Rush.

In 2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his inauguration, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.