Russell Billiu Long
United States Senator from Louisiana
In office December 31, 1948 – January 3, 1987
Preceded by	William C. Feazel
Succeeded by	John Breaux
15th United States Senate Majority Whip
In office January 3, 1965 – January 3, 1969
Preceded by	Hubert Humphrey
Succeeded by	Ted Kennedy
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance
In office January 3, 1965 – January 3, 1981
Preceded by	Harry F. Byrd
Succeeded by	Bob Dole
Personal details
Born	(1918-11-03)November 3, 1918 Shreveport, Louisiana
Died	May 9, 2003(2003-05-09) (aged 84) Washington, D.C.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	1. Katherine Mae Hattie (div.) 2. Carolyn Bason
Children	Rita Katherine Long Pamela Long
Alma mater	Louisiana State University
Profession	Politician, Attorney
Religion	United Methodist
Military service
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1942–1945
Rank	Lieutenant
Unit	Reserves
Battles/wars	World War II

Russell Billiu Long (November 3, 1918 – May 9, 2003) was an American Democratic politician and United States Senator from Louisiana from 1948 until 1987.

Early life[link]

Long was born in Shreveport, and received bachelor's and law degrees from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Zeta Zeta chapter). During college, he served as freshman class president, sophomore Arts and Sciences President, and then student body president. In June 1942, World War II, Long entered the naval reserve and completed his service as a Lieutenant in December 1945.^[1]

Early career[link]

Long was the son of the flamboyant Louisiana governor and Senator Huey P. Long and Rose McConnell Long, who served about a year in the Senate following her husband's death. When Russell Long was elected in November 1948, he became the only person in U.S. history to have been preceded in the Senate by both his father and his mother. The U.S. Constitution requires Senators to be at least 30 years old and Long barely met this requirement. He was elected to the Senate on November 2, 1948, one day before his 30th birthday. He did not take office, however, until December 31, giving him a few days of seniority over others in the Senate class of 1948, including Lyndon B. Johnson and Hubert Humphrey. Before he ran for the Senate, Long had served as executive counsel to his uncle, Earl Kemp Long, who returned to the governorship in 1948.

Defeating Kennon and Clarke, 1948[link]

To win the Senate seat vacated by the death of Democrat John Holmes Overton, Long first defeated Judge Robert F. Kennon of Minden in the Democratic primary, 264,143 (51 percent) to 253,668 (49 percent). The margin was hence 10,475 votes. Long then overwhelmed Republican oilman Clem S. Clarke of Shreveport, 306,337 (75 percent) to 102,339 (25 percent). Clarke was the first Louisiana Republican senatorial nominee in decades. He carried Iberia, Caddo (Long's native parish), Lafayette, and East Baton Rouge parishes. Clarke had tried get the courts to forbid Long from running on both the Harry Truman and Strom Thurmond slates in Louisiana, but he failed to convince the judges, and Long's votes on each slate were counted.

Senate career[link]

Specialist on tax law[link]

Long was known for his knowledge of tax laws. In 1953, he began serving as an influential member of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee and was the chairman from 1966 until Republicans assumed control of the Senate in 1981. During his time in the Senate, Long was a strong champion of tax breaks for businesses, once saying, "I have become convinced you're going to have to have capital if you're going to have capitalism." On the other hand, he was aware of some of the political ramifications of "tax reform," stating that it simply meant "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree!"^[2]

Long's contributions to the United States' tax laws include the Earned Income Tax Credit, a program aimed at reducing the tax burden on poor working families, the Child Support Enforcement Act, and Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), employee benefit plans designed to allow employees to invest in the stock of their employers. In the year 2006, the Earned Income Tax Credit lifted more than four million people above the poverty line and was called “the nation’s most effective antipoverty program for working families.”^[3] Long also initiated the provision that allows a taxpayer to allocate $1 of taxes for a Presidential election campaign fund checkoff (the "dollar checkoff").

Democratic senators named him the party Assistant Majority Leader (whip) in 1965. He lost this leadership position in 1969 to Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, but remained as Senate Finance Committee Chairman. He had especially good relations with both of his senatorial colleagues from Louisiana, first Allen J. Ellender and, then, J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., who like Long was born in Shreveport.

In 1966, at the request of former National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle, Long and Congressman Hale Boggs used their influence to pass legislation that allowed for the merger of the American Football League and the National Football League (NFL). Without the legislation, the merger would have been prohibited by anti-trust laws governing monopolies. In exchange for ensuring the passage of the legislation, Long and Boggs requested that Rozelle award the next NFL expansion franchise to New Orleans.^[4] Rozelle complied, and Long and Boggs joined Rozelle in announcing that New Orleans had obtained the New Orleans Saints on November 1, 1966.^[5]

Long served as President Lyndon B. Johnson's legislative Senate floor leader for many of the Great Society programs. Through his position on the Senate Finance Committee, he was instrumental in building support for the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986.

Subsequent elections[link]

After his election in 1948, Long never again faced a close contest for reelection. Because the 1948 election was for a two-year unexpired term, Long had to run again in 1950 for his first full six-year term. That year, he had no trouble defeating the intraparty challenge of Malcolm E. Lafargue (1908–1963), a great-nephew of Senator John Overton but a candidate to the political right of the Longs. In an advertisement, Lafargue questioned how Long is the self-proclaimed "poor man's friend" because the incumbent "pretends to sneer at millionaires, but Long is a millionaire himself."^[6]

After he dispatched Lafargue and Mills, Long overwhelmed his Republican opponent, Charles S. Gerth, a businessman from New Orleans, who had also run for senator in 1948 against Long's long-term colleague, Allen J. Ellender, but as a Democrat. In the 1950 race, Long polled 220,907 (87.7 percent) to Gerth's 30,931 (12.3 percent).

In 1962, Long defeated attorney Philemon A. "Phil" St. Amant, a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel from Baton Rouge, 407,162 votes (80.2 percent) to 100,843 votes (19.8 percent) in the Democratic primary. Long then trounced his Republican challenger Taylor W. O'Hearn, a Shreveport attorney and accountant and later state representative, with 318,838 votes (75.6 percent) to 103,066 (24.4 percent).

Speculation persisted that Long would run for governor in the 1963 Democratic primary. He had received encouragement from "all the shades of factionalism in the state." Instead, he endorsed his cousin, Gillis W. Long, the U.S. representative from the Eighth Congressional District based about Alexandria. At the time, Long was second to the aging Senator Harry Flood Byrd, Sr., of Virginia on the Senate Finance Committee and had already presided as chairman during Byrd's prolonged absence because of failing health.^[7]

As a result of President Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Long (along with more than a dozen other southern Senators, including Herman Talmadge and Richard Russell) did not attend the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City.^[8] However, Long defied conventional wisdom by delivering a television address in Louisiana in which he strongly endorsed the Johnson-Humphrey ticket, which lost the state to the Republican Barry M. Goldwater-William E. Miller electors. The action had no consequence on Long's future, however, as Republicans declined to challenge his reelection in 1968, 1974, and 1980.

In 1968, Long overpowered a primary rival, Maurice P. Blache, Sr. (1917–1991), to win renomination. He was unopposed in the general election when the presumed Republican candidate, Richard Kilbourne, the district attorney in East Feliciana Parish, withdrew from the race. Kilbourne abandoned his campaign so that his party could concentrate on trying to elect David C. Treen to represent Louisiana's 2nd congressional district over incumbent Democrat Hale Boggs.

In 1974, Long defeated state Insurance Commissioner Sherman A. Bernard of Westwego in Jefferson Parish, 520,606 (74.7 percent) to 131,540 (18.9 percent), in the Democratic primary. (Another 44,341 (6.4 percent) went to a third candidate, Annie Smart.) State Republican Chairman James H. Boyce of Baton Rouge noted that the party could not find a viable candidate to challenge Long.

In 1980, Long defeated State Representative Louis Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge, 484,770 (57.6 percent) to 325,922 (38.8 percent) in the state's nonpartisan blanket primary. During the 1980 campaign, Long's friend and colleague, Robert J. "Bob" Dole, the Kansas Republican who had been his party's vice presidential nominee in 1976 and who would be the presidential nominee in 1996, made a television commercial for Long in the race against Jenkins. Dole and Long were both running for reelection that year. The 1980 primary was the last time Long's name was on a ballot.

Retirement[link]

After he considered and rejected a run for governor of Louisiana, Long retired from the Senate in January 1987. Summing up his career in the Senate, Ronald Reagan called him a "legend" and "one of the most skillful legislators, compromisers and legislative strategists in history."^[9] Referring to Long's enormous power, the Wall Street Journal once called Long "the fourth branch of government."^[10]

In 1986, after Long announced his retirement, Democratic Congressman John Breaux of Crowley was elected to succeed him in the Senate. Breaux defeated the Republican U.S. Representative W. Henson Moore, III, of Baton Rouge. Moore had led the balloting in the nonpartisan blanket primary but lost the general election to Breaux in a nationally Democratic year. Breaux, unlike Long, however, did not secure the election of his chosen successor. The seat was won in 2004 by Republican U.S. Representative David Vitter of the New Orleans suburbs.

Long remained in Washington, D.C., as a highly sought-after lobbyist after his retirement. For a brief period of time following his retirement, he was a partner in the law firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey, which dissolved in 1987.^[11] He later founded the Long Law Firm, where he remained a partner until his death. Long also served on the Board of Directors of The New York Stock Exchange, Lowe's Companies, Inc., and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

Political positions[link]

Long was opposed to judicial intrusions into police power, calling the liberal members of the Warren Court "'the dirty five' who side with the criminal."^[12]

Death[link]

At the time of his death from heart failure, Russell Long was the only former senator still living whose service went back as far as 1948. He was in the Senate, for instance, six years before Strom Thurmond arrived for what turned out to have been a 48-year stint. He began his Senate service a full decade before Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia arrived in January 1959 for a 51-year career. The Long funeral, held in Baton Rouge, is remembered in part for the moving eulogies delivered by his grandson, attorney Russell Long Mosely, and by his former colleagues J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., and John Breaux.

Family[link]

Long married the former Katherine Mae Hattic in June 1939. They had two daughters, Rita Katherine (born 1944) and Pamela. The Longs divorced,^[when?] and the senator thereafter married^[when?] the former Carolyn Bason from North Carolina, who resides in Washington, D.C.

Long's brother, Palmer Reid Long, Sr. (1921–2010), of Shreveport, worked in the 1948 Senate campaign as well as efforts to elect Earl Long governor. Palmer Long attended Sewanee Military Academy in Tennessee and LSU in Baton Rouge and was a flight instructor with the United States Army Air Corps, forerunner of the Air Force during World War II. Married to the former Louene Dance (1994–2010), who preceded him in death by nine months, Palmer Long was otherwise involved in the family's oil and natural gas business and shunned most other political participation beyond personal contributions.

Long also had a sister, Rose Long McFarland (1917–2006), later of Boulder, Colorado.^[13]

In popular culture[link]

Long appears as a character in Oliver Stone's film JFK, portrayed in a cameo appearance by legendary actor Walter Matthau. In the scene, based on a real-life occurrence, Long chats with New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison during an airplane ride where he denounces the lone gunman theory of the John F. Kennedy assassination concluding: "That dog don't hunt." This conversation leads Garrison to read the entirety of the Warren Report himself, and leads him to the conclusion that there was a conspiracy to assassinate the President.

William C. Havard, Rudolf Heberle, and Perry H. Howard, in The Louisiana Election of 1960 noted that Russell Long as a U.S. senator extended his family dynasty. "Russell Long represents a modified and tone-down version of Longism but retains a basic orientation toward the active use of governmental power as a means of adjusting social and economic imbalances among group interests."^[14]

In 1993, Russell Long was among the first thirteen inductees into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, along with his father and his uncle, Earl Long.

The prestigious Russell B. Long Service Award is named in his honor. Among the recipients is the state legislator Ronnie Johns of Sulphur in Calcasieu Parish.

Dr. Bruce Gold and Ralph Newsome are alumni of the Senator Russell B. Long Foundation in Joseph Heller's "Good as Gold".^[15]

References[link]

• William J. "Bill" Dodd, Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics, Baton Rouge: Claitor's Publishing, 1991

External links[link]

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Cemetery Memorial by La-Cemeteries
• A debunking of the Russell Long scene in JFK
• "Russell B. Long". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7428137. Retrieved January 27, 2008. 
• Long Families of Corinth and Zion – Winn Parish, LA

v t e United States Senators from Louisiana Class 2 Destréhan Posey Brown Claiborne Johnson Bouligny Livingston Waggaman Nicholas Barrow Soulé Downs Benjamin Harris West Kellogg Gibson Caffery Foster Ransdell H. Long R.M. Long Ellender Edwards J.B. Johnston Landrieu Class 3 Magruder Fromentin Brown J.S. Johnston Porter Mouton Conrad Johnson Soulé Slidell Kellogg Eustis Jonas Eustis White Blanchard McEnery Thornton R. Broussard Guion Gay E. Broussard Overton Feazel R.B. Long Breaux Vitter

v t e United States Senate Majority Whips Lewis • Curtis • Jones • Fess • Lewis • Minton • Hill • Wherry • Myers • Johnson • Saltonstall • Clements • Mansfield • Humphrey • Long • Kennedy • Byrd • Cranston • Stevens • Simpson • Cranston • Ford • Lott • Nickles • Reid • Nickles • Reid • McConnell • Durbin

v t e Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on Finance Campbell • Eppes • Sanford • Holmes • Lowrie • Smith • Webster • Wright • Clay • Evans • Woodbury • Calhoun • Lewis • Atherton • Dickinson • Hunter • Pearce • Fessenden • Sherman • Fessenden • Sherman • Morrill • Bayard • Morrill • Voorhees • Morrill • Aldrich • Penrose • Simmons • Penrose • McCumber • Smoot • Harrison • George • Millikin • George • Millikin • Byrd • Long • Dole • Packwood • Bentsen • Moynihan • Packwood • Roth • Baucus • Grassley • Baucus • Grassley • Baucus

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2012)

Catherine Russell (born 1966) is a British stage, television and screen actress.

Personal life[link]

Catherine Russell is the daughter of actor Nicholas Smith and his wife Mary. She is married to film producer Richard Holmes and they have two children, Sam and Poppy. She trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama from 1983 to 1986 under George Hall.

Theatre[link]

Russell's credits are extensive and varied including being nominated for an Ian Charleson Award for her performance in Chekhov's Three Sisters. She has played leads in the West End at The National, The Royal Court, Soho Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Lyric; Royal Exchange, Manchester and Almeida Theatre.

She regularly works with the visionary director Max Stafford-Clark for his acclaimed theatre company Out of Joint where, as well as Masha in Three Sisters, she created roles such as Tess in Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Break of Day, Rima and Phoebe in Robin Soans' Talking to Terrorists, Mrs Peacham and Bett Rock in Stephen Jeffreys' The Convict's Opera and Hildy in Stella Feehily's Dreams of Violence. Other new work includes Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest directed by Michael Buffong, leading roles in Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott's The Last Carnival and award winning Kevin Elyot's The Day I Stood Still directed by the renowned Ian Rickson. Recently^[when?] she played Rosie in the West End production of Mamma Mia!

Television[link]

Catherine has starred in several television series including playing Hugh Bonneville's sister, Rachel Cazalet, in The Cazalets, Gemma Jones' daughter in Chelworth, the title role of Elly Chandler in Chandler & Co with Barbara Flynn and subsequently Susan Fleetwood; Nathaniel Parker's wife in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Martin Shaw's wife in Always and Everyone. Other television includes guest appearances in Messiah, Poirot, Waking the Dead, Sherlock Holmes, Maigret, Silent Witness, Holding On and Pete versus Life (series one and two) with Rafe Spall. She has been playing surgeon, Serena Campbell, in medical drama Holby City since 1 May 2012.

Film[link]

Catherine starred opposite Ian Hart in the British cult film Clockwork Mice directed by award winning director Vadim Jean. She also made a comic, cameo appearance playing a work colleague of Colin Firth's in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Her other films include Solitaire for Two and Soft Top Hard Shoulder.

External links[link]

• Catherine Russell The Internet Movie Database

This article about an English actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Russell Joseph Howard^{[citation needed]} (born 23 March 1980)^[2] is an English comedian and presenter best known for his TV show Russell Howard's Good News and his appearances on the topical panel TV show Mock The Week. He won "Best Compère" at the 2006 Chortle Awards and was nominated for an if.comedy award for his 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe show.

Personal life[link]

Howard has two younger siblings, twins, Kerry, an actress, and Daniel,^[3] a systems analyst who suffers from epilepsy,^[4] a fact which Howard often references during his act. Indeed, in April 2010, Howard ran the Virgin London Marathon for the first time with both his brother and sister, to raise money for the National Society for Epilepsy. He completed the 26 mile course in 4 hours and 15 minutes, beating his target time of 5 hours. Sponsorship has raised over £7,000 to date.^[5]

Howard supports Liverpool Football Club and says that he is "deadly serious" about football.^[6] "I still go down the pub and play football with my mates", he commented in 2010.^[6]

In terms of political views, Howard appeared at Friends of the Earth's LIVEstock comedy and music event at the Hammersmith Apollo in support of the green campaign group's Food Chain Campaign for planet-friendly farming, on 12 November 2009.

For Sport Relief 2010 he took part in the BT Sport Relief Million Pound Bike Ride, with David Walliams, Jimmy Carr, Fearne Cotton, Miranda Hart, Patrick Kielty, and Davina McCall. They cycled from John O'Groats in Scotland to Land's End in 4 days trying to raise 1 million pounds.^[7]

Career[link]

TV and radio work[link]

In 2004 he was commissioned by BBC Radio 1 to write, sing and perform on the comedy series The Milk Run. Howard has also appeared on the shows Banter (hosted by Andrew Collins) and Political Animal for BBC Radio 4.^[8]

Until 2010, Howard was a regular panelist on Mock the Week. He has also appeared on 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Would I Lie To You?, Live At The Apollo, The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008, Law of the Playground and Never Mind the Buzzcocks (Series 18, Episode 2 and Series 20, Episode 4).^[9]

He was one of several comedians picked as the best comedy talent from the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe that recorded 10–15-minute spots for the 'Edinburgh and Beyond show' which was aired on Paramount Comedy 1 in the autumn of 2006.^[10] The show was filmed at The Bloomsbury Theatre. From 2009, he took over as compère of this show from Al Murray.^[11]

From November 2006 to July 2008, Russell co-hosted The Russell Howard Show^[12] on BBC 6 Music with fellow comedian Jon Richardson in a Sunday morning slot previously hosted by Russell Brand. The show continued to air, without Howard, until March 2010. He has since explained that his main reason for leaving the show was that he finds radio "really restrictive" and "I gorge off the audience as a performer, but you can't gauge a reaction on the radio."^[13][14]

Russell was commissioned to make a comedy show called Russell Howard's Good News, aimed at under-25s, for BBC Three. The first episode aired on 22 October 2009 and the show ran for seven episodes as well as a "Best Of" show and a Christmas Special. It went on to become BBC Three's highest ever rating entertainment series.^[15][16] In the show, he gave his take on the week's major news stories, as well as giving attention to some of the more light-hearted stories of the week. Two more series of the show were commissioned, with the second series starting on March 25, 2010.^[17] A fourth series began on 24 March 2011 on BBC Three.

While recording an episode of Good News which aired on 17th November 2011, he broke his wrist when a stunt went wrong, being that Russell tried to do push ups on a collapsible stool which inevitably collapsed. He then revealed on the following show some of the texts sent by his friends and family following the accident.

He made his United States television début on the August 3, 2011 episode of Conan.

Live comedy[link]

A show from his 2007 Adventures tour was released on DVD on 17 November 2008,^[18] under the title "Russell Howard Live". The show on the DVD was recorded at The Bloomsbury Theatre.^[19]

Howard started touring his show Dingledodies in September 2008 and played various dates through to December. Due to overwhelming demand he further extended the tour twice into 2009. It sold in excess of 125,000 tickets,^[20] including three sell-out shows at the Hammersmith Apollo as well as several large arenas such as Wembley Arena and Manchester's MEN Arena. The DVD of this tour was released on 9 November 2009^[21] and features a recording of the show from the Brighton Dome.^[20]

He was named "Best Theatre Show" at the 2009 Chortle Comedy Awards.^[22]

Howard performed 10 UK dates between 11 and 20 December 2009 for his "Big Rooms and Belly Laughs" tour.^[23]

In 2011 the far right English Defence League threatened to picket outside one of his live gigs in retaliation at material poking fun at them in one of his TV performances.^[24]

He performed his latest arena tour in 2011, titled Right Here Right Now. The tour sold out in days and was extended twice, with new dates in December 2011 announced on 3 May 2011.

It was reported in The Independent that Howard earned £4 million in 2009 alone,^[25] which he denies.^[26]

Credits[link]

Television[link]

• Never Mind the Buzzcocks BBC 2 (2006)
• Mock The Week BBC 2 (2006–2010)
• Never Mind the Buzzcocks BBC 2 (2007)
• Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive BBC Three (2007)
• Would I Lie To You? BBC 1 (2007)
• Live at the Apollo BBC 1 (2007)
• Law of the Playground Channel 4 (2008)
• The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008 Channel 4 (2008)
• 8 out of 10 Cats Channel 4 (2008)
• Live at the Apollo BBC 1 (2009)
• Russell Howard's Good News BBC Three (2009–)
• Conan (2011)
• Children in Need 2011 (2011)

Radio[link]

• The Milk Run BBC Radio 1 (2004)
• Political Animal BBC Radio 4 (2004)
• Banter BBC Radio 4 (2005)
• The Russell Howard Show BBC 6 Music (2006–2008)

Writing[link]

• The Milk Run BBC Radio 1 (2004)

Stand-Up DVDs[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Russell Howard Official Website

Russell Peters
Russell Peters in 2009
Birth name	Russell Dominic Peters
Born	(1970-09-29) September 29, 1970 (age 41) Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Medium	Stand-up, Television, Film, Radio
Nationality	Canadian
Years active	1989–present
Genres	Satire, Improvisational comedy, Black comedy
Subject(s)	Racism, Race relations, Stereotypes, Multiculturalism, Indian culture
Influences	George Carlin,[1] Steve Martin, Cheech and Chong,[2] Don Rickles,[3] Eddie Murphy
Spouse	Monica Diaz (2010–2012) 1 child
Website	RussellPeters.com

Russell Dominic Peters (born September 29, 1970)^[4] is a Canadian comedian, actor and disc jockey. He began performing in Toronto in 1989 and has been nominated for four Gemini Awards.

Early life[link]

Russell Peters was born in Brampton, Ontario, Canada to Eric and Maureen Peters. His family is of Anglo-Indian ancestry and is Catholic.^[4] His father was born in Bombay, Maharashtra, India, and worked as a federal meat inspector; he is regularly mentioned and featured in his comedy work.^[5] His mother was born in Calcutta, West Bengal, India. He has an older brother named Clayton who was born in Calcutta.^[6] Russell attended Chinguacousy Secondary School for grades 9–10, and North Peel Secondary School for grades 11–12 in Brampton.^[7][8][9]

Career[link]

Peters began performing in Toronto in 1989. Peters' popularity extends to several countries. He has since also performed in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Afghanistan, Sweden, South Africa, India, the Caribbean, Philippines, Vietnam, mainland China, Canada, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, France, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Norway, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Trinidad among other places.

Peters attribute performance he did on the Canadian TV comedy series Comedy Now! that was uploaded onto YouTube and became viral.^[10] While the initial video upload featured his performance in its 45 minute entirety, subsequent videos uploaded by other YouTube users were snippets of that performance, chopped into each of the cultural groups he targeted. According to Peters, those snippets made their way to those specified cultural groups, and were well received by them.^[11]

Notable performances[link]

In Canada, Peters became the first comedian to sell out Toronto's Air Canada Centre,^[12] with more than 16,000 tickets in two days for the single show. He ended up selling over 30,000 tickets nationally over the two-day sales period. A total of over 60,000 tickets were sold across six cities.^{[citation needed]} His show in Sydney, Australia on 15 May 2010 had an audience of 13,880, making it the largest stand-up comedy show in Australian history.^[13] He broke a UK comedy sales record at London's O2 Arena when he sold over 16,000 tickets to his show on 2009.^[14]

He hosted the Canada Day Comedy Festival 2006. Peters participated in a USO tour of Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Africa and Greenland in November 2007 with Wilmer Valderrama and Mayra Veronica.^[15]. Peters also currently produces and stars on the radio situation comedy series, Monsoon House, on CBC Radio One.

Peters was the host of the 2008 Juno Awards televised ceremonies in Calgary on April 6, 2008,^[16] for which he won a Gemini Award for "Best Performance or Host in a Variety Program or Series". The 2008 awards broadcast received the second-highest ratings ever for the program. He was asked to host the Juno Awards for a second year in a row. The 2009 Juno Awards took place in Vancouver on March 29, 2009.

Publications[link]

His comedy special Russell Peters: Outsourced, aired on Comedy Central on August 16, 2006. The DVD version features his uncensored performance. The DVD has been popular, especially in Canada, selling over 100,000 copies. Outsourced remained on the National DVD Chart over one and a half years after release. Peters released a second DVD/CD combo Russell Peters: Red, White, and Brown in Canada in September 2008 and in the US on January 27, 2009. The DVD/CD was recorded on February 2, 2008, at The WAMU Theatre at Madison Square Garden. Peters and his brother, Clayton Peters, who is also his manager, self-produced and financed Red, White and Brown. In May 2011, Peters released Russell Peters: The Green Card Tour a live performance recorded in front of a total audience of 30,000 over a two-night performance at O2 Arena in London, England.^[17]

On October 26, 2010, Peters released his autobiography, Call me Russell, co - written with his brother Clayton and Dannis Koromilas.

Earnings[link]

According to Forbes.com, Peters earned an estimated $15 million between June 2009 and June 2010, continuing his run as one of the highest-paid comedians after earning an estimated $5 million in the prior year's report. He was ranked as the 7th highest paid comedian by Forbes.^[18][19]

Comedic style[link]

Russell Peters' stand-up performances are mostly made up of observational comedy where he uses humour to highlight racial, ethnic, class and cultural stereotypes. He often refers his own life experiences growing up in an Indian family and impersonates various English accents of different groups in his act to poke fun at each group. As Peters told an audience in San Francisco, "I don't make the stereotypes, I just see them."^[20] Russell Peters uses his minority status to allow him to poke fun at different races in his performance, but according to an interview done for The National, he does not intend to put down or offend different races and cultures, but instead tries to raise them up through humour.^[21]

Peters' is widely known for his comedy punchlines "Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad" in which he tells a joke about his childhood with a traditional Indian father who would use corporal punishment and “Be a man!" while imitating an Asian trying to get him to pay more for an item at a shop.^[22]

Personal life[link]

Peters proposed to girlfriend Monica Diaz on July 10, 2010, at the Los Angeles International Airport. He announced the engagement via Twitter.^[23][24] The couple married on August 20, 2010 at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. The wedding was attended by about 20 guests, including an Elvis impersonator. Peters and Diaz had their first child, a girl, who was due to be born on February 23, 2011. When announcing the pregnancy, Peters told The Canadian Press, "Did I get married because she was knocked up? I would say that expedited it." His daughter was born two and a half months early (on December 14, 2010), but was healthy as Peters stated on his Twitter. She was given the name Crystianna Marie Peters.

Peters lives in Los Angeles and owns two homes there. He also owns homes in Las Vegas and Vaughan, Ontario.^[25]

Filmography[link]

Television and film appearances[link]

Peters has appeared in a few films, most recently in the 2011 Canadian-Punjabi movie titled Speedy Singhs alongside Camilla Belle, Anupham Kher, and Vinay Virmani. He has also appeared in Senior Skip Day starring Larry Miller, Tara Reid, and Gary Lundy. Besides this, he has also had short appearances in the 1994 film Boozecan as Snake's Friend, the 1999 film Tiger Claws III as Detective Elliott, the 2004 film My Baby's Daddy as the obstetrician, the 2006 film Quarter Life Crisis as Dilip Kumar, the 2007 film The Take as Dr. Sharma, and the 2008 film Senior Skip Day as Uncle Todd.

Peters starred in a Christmas special,A Russell Peters Christmas aired in Canada on 1 December, 2011. Guests included Michael Bublé, Pamela Anderson, Jon Lovitz among others.^[27]

He also acted in Duncan Jones's movie Source Code as Max, an amateur comedian with a bad attitude, and is scheduled to star as "Pervius" in National Lampoon's The Legend of Awesomest Maximus.^[28]

Acting roles – television

• "Comics Without Borders" (2008)
• Russell Peters: Red, White and Brown (2008)
• Senior Skip Day/High School's Day Off (Australia title) (2008)- Uncle Todd
• Bob's Burgers - "Moody Foodie" (Season 2, Episode 7) - Tran

Appearances on television

• "A Russell Peters Christmas" - Himself (1 December 2011)
• "Lopez Tonight" - Himself (2010)
• "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" – Himself (2009)
• "The 9th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards" (2008)- Himself (Winner – Best Large Venue Stand-up)
• "CBC News: The Hour" .... Himself – Episode dated 18 September 2008 (2008) TV episode .... Himself
• "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" – Himself – Episode dated 15 February 2008 (2008)
• "Def Comedy Jam" – Episode #8.4 (2008) TV episode – Himself/Comedian
• "Pulse: The Desi Beat" – Episode #1.9 (2007) TV episode – Himself
• "Video on Trial" – Episode #3.3 (2007) TV episode – Himself
• "Comics Unleashed" – Episode #1.6 (2009) TV episode- Himself
• The 4th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards (2039) – Himself
• The 5th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards (2004) – Nominee (Male Stand-up)
• MTV Cribs (Where he featured on two different episodes)
• "8 out of 10 Cats" (Season 12, Episode 9)

Self

• Heckler (2007)
• Let's All Hate Toronto (2007)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Russell Peters (26 July 2011). Call Me Russell. Random House Digital, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-385-66965-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=Man0-BpnFjkC&pg=PP1. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Russell Peters

• Russell named first Toronto ambassador

Barrence Whitfield (born Barry White, June 13, 1955) is an American soul and R&B vocalist and best known as the singer of Barrence Whitfield and the Savages in the 1980s.

Life and career[link]

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, White's family moved to East Orange, New Jersey when he was a child, and he began singing in a local gospel choir. While attending West Side High School he also sang and played drums in local rock and funk bands. In 1977 he went to Boston University to study journalism. There, he also worked in a local record shop, where his singing was heard by local musician Peter Greenberg of The Lyres. White adopted the stage name of Barrence Whitfield to avoid confusion with the other Barry White and began performing with Greenberg and other former members of the Lyres as Barrence Whitfield and the Savages.^[1][2]

The band gathered a strong local reputation for their stage performances, described as "raucous and rough, in high gear from the moment they hit the stage."^[2] Whitfield himself was described as "a soul screamer in the spirit of Little Richard, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, and early Don Covay."^[2] In 1984, the band released their self-titled debut album, mostly comprising cover versions of obscure soul songs, to good critical reviews. The following year, they released a second album, Dig Yourself, on Rounder Records. Their music was heard by English radio DJ Andy Kershaw, who taped a Boston performance for playing on air in Britain, and took them to the UK to tour.^[1][2][3]

Whitfield released a third album, Call of the Wild, in the UK in 1987, featuring a new line-up of his band; an expanded version, retitled Ow! Ow! Ow! was later issued in the US. He toured widely in Europe, and won supporting slots on US tours by artists including Bo Diddley, Tina Turner, George Thorogood, Robert Cray, and Solomon Burke. This was followed by seven Boston Music Awards.^[1] A live album recorded in 1987-88 was followed by the album Let's Lose It, produced by Jim Dickinson and first issued in France.^[4]

In the 1990s, Whitfield contributed tracks to Merle Haggard and Don Covay tribute albums, and recorded two albums with country music singer-songwriter Tom Russell. His final album with the Savages, Ritual of the Savages, was released in 1995. In 1997, he began working with a New Hampshire-based jump blues and rockabilly octet, The Movers.^[3] As well as continuing to perform in the UK and Europe, Whitfield has also contributed to film scores, including the 2007 film, Honeydripper.^[1]

In December 2010 Barrence reunited with original Savages Peter Greenberg (DMZ, Lyres, Customs) with Andy Jody (Gazelles!, Pearlene, Oxford Cotton, Long Gones) and Tom Quartulli on sax to perform two live shows and record a new Barrence Whitfield and The Savages record.

Discography[link]

• Barrence Whitfield and the Savages, Mamou, 1984
• Dig Yourself, Rounder, 1985
• Call of the Wild EP, UK Demon/Rounder, 1987
• Ow! Ow! Ow!, Rounder, 1987
• Live Emulsified, Rounder, 1989
• Let's Lose It, France, New Rose, 1990
• Savage Tracks, France, New Rose, 1992
• Cowboy Mambo (with Tom Russell), East Side Digital, 1993
• Hillbilly Voodoo (with Tom Russell), East Side Digital, 1993
• Ritual of the Savages, Ocean Music, 1995

References[link]

External links[link]

• Barrence Whitfield official site
• AMG Guide P= 196065 AMG
• Article by John O'Neill, Barrence Whitfield still swings and rocks and belts out soul, The Worcester Phoenix, 1998