Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals. The vibration occurs when a guitar player strums, fingerpicks, slaps or taps the strings; the pickup uses electromagnetic induction to create this signal, which being weak is fed into a guitar amplifier before being sent to the speaker, which converts it into audible sound. The electric signal can be electronically altered to change the timbre of the sound; the signal is modified using effects such as reverb, distortion and "overdrive". Invented in 1931, the electric guitar was adopted by jazz guitar players, who wanted to play single-note guitar solos in large big band ensembles. Early proponents of the electric guitar on record include Les Paul, Lonnie Johnson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, T-Bone Walker, Charlie Christian. During the 1950s and 1960s, the electric guitar became the most important instrument in popular music, it has evolved into an instrument, capable of a multitude of sounds and styles in genres ranging from pop and rock to country music and jazz.
It served as a major component in the development of electric blues and roll, rock music, heavy metal music and many other genres of music. Electric guitar design and construction varies in the shape of the body and the configuration of the neck and pickups. Guitars may have a fixed bridge or a spring-loaded hinged bridge, which lets players "bend" the pitch of notes or chords up or down, or perform vibrato effects; the sound of an electric guitar can be modified by new playing techniques such as string bending and hammering-on, using audio feedback, or slide guitar playing. There are several types of electric guitar, including: the solid-body guitar. In pop and rock music, the electric guitar is used in two roles: as a rhythm guitar, which plays the chord sequences or progressions, riffs, sets the beat. In a small group, such as a power trio, one guitarist switches between both roles. In large rock and metal bands, there is a rhythm guitarist and a lead guitarist. Many experiments at electrically amplifying the vibrations of a string instrument were made dating back to the early part of the 20th century.
Patents from the 1910s show telephone transmitters were adapted and placed inside violins and banjos to amplify the sound. Hobbyists in the 1920s used carbon button microphones attached to the bridge. With numerous people experimenting with electrical instruments in the 1920s and early 1930s, there are many claimants to have been the first to invent an electric guitar. Electric guitars were designed by acoustic guitar makers and instrument manufacturers; the demand for amplified guitars began during the big band era. The first electric guitars used in jazz were hollow archtop acoustic guitar bodies with electromagnetic transducers. Early electric guitar manufacturers include Rickenbacker in 1932; the first electrically amplified stringed instrument to be marketed commercially was designed in 1931 by George Beauchamp, the general manager of the National Guitar Corporation, with Paul Barth, vice president. The maple body prototype for the one-piece cast aluminium "frying pan" was built by Harry Watson, factory superintendent of the National Guitar Corporation.
Commercial production began in late summer of 1932 by the Ro-Pat-In Corporation, in Los Angeles, a partnership of Beauchamp, Adolph Rickenbacker, Paul Barth. In 1934, the company was renamed the Rickenbacker Electro Stringed Instrument Company. In that year Beauchamp applied for a United States patent for an Electrical Stringed Musical Instrument and the patent was issued in 1937. By early-mid 1935, Electro String Instrument Corporation had achieved mainstream success with the A-22 "Frying Pan" steel guitar, set out to capture a new audience through its release of the Electro-Spanish Model B and the Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts, the first full 25" scale electric guitar produced; the Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts was revolutionary for its time, providing players a full 25" scale, with easy access to 17 frets free of the body. Unlike other lap-steel electrified instruments produced during the time, the Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts was designed to play standing vertical, upright with a strap; the Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts was the first instrument to feature a hand-operated vibrato as a standard appointment, a device called the "Vibrola," invented by Doc Kauffman.
It is estimated that fewer than 50 Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts were constructed between 1933 and 1937. The solid-body electric guitar is made without functionally resonating air spaces; the first solid-body Spanish standard guitar was offered by Vivi-Tone no than 1934. This model featured a guitar-shaped body of a single sheet
Riot grrrl
Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began in the early 1990s in Washington state and the greater Pacific Northwest. It had origins in Washington, D. C. and spread to at least 26 countries. It is a subcultural movement that combines politics, it is associated with third-wave feminism, sometimes seen as having grown out of the Riot Grrrl movement. It has been described as a musical genre that came out of indie rock, with the punk scene serving as an inspiration for a musical movement in which women could express themselves in the same way men had been doing for the past several years. Riot grrrl bands address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, racism, patriarchy,classism and female empowerment. Primary bands associated with the movement include Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, Excuse 17, Huggy Bear, Skinned Teen, Emily's Sassy Lime and Sleater-Kinney, as well as queercore groups like Team Dresch and The Third Sex. In addition to a music scene and genre, riot grrrl is a subculture involving a DIY ethic, art, political action, activism.
The riot grrrl movement spread well beyond its musical roots to create vibrant “zine” and Internet-based movement, complete with local meetings and grassroots organizing to end ageism, weightism, racism and physical and emotional violence against women and girls. Riot grrrls are known to hold meetings, start chapters, support and organize women in music. During the late 1970s and early and mid-1980s there were a number of groundbreaking female punk and rock musicians who influenced the riot grrrl ethos; these included Siouxsie Sioux, Poly Styrene, The Slits, Au Pairs, The Raincoats, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, The Runaways/Joan Jett, The B-52's, LiLiPUT, Lydia Lunch, Exene Cervenka, Kim Gordon, Ut, Neo Boys, Bush Tetras, Y Pants, ESG, Chalk Circle, Fifth Column, Frightwig, X-Ray Spex and Anti-Scrunti Faction. The 1980s featured a number of female folk singers from New York whose lyrics were realistic and socio-political, but personally intimate. During the mid-1980s in Vancouver the influential Mecca Normal fronted by poet Jean Smith formed, followed by Sugar Baby Doll in San Francisco whose members would all wind up in hardcore female bands.
In 1987, the magazine Sassy premiered and dealt with tough subjects that conventional magazines aimed at teenage girls did not. An article "Women and rock and roll" published by Puncture, edited by Katherine Spielmann, in 1989 became the first manifesto of the movement. In 1991, a radio program hosted by Lois Maffeo entitled Your Dream Girl aimed at angry young women debuted on Olympia, Washington radio station KAOS. During the early 1990s the Seattle/Olympia Washington area had a sophisticated do it yourself infrastructure. Young women involved in underground music scenes took advantage of this to articulate their feminist thoughts and desires through creating punk-rock fanzines and forming garage bands; the political model of collage-based, photocopied handbills and booklets was used by the punk movement as a way to activate underground music, leftist politics and alternative sub-cultures. There was a discomfort among many women in the punk movement who felt that they had no space for organizing, because of the misogyny in the punk culture.
Many women found that while they identified with a larger, music-oriented subculture, they had little to no voice in their local scenes. Women at the punk-rock shows saw themselves as girlfriends of the boys, so they took it upon themselves to represent their own interests by making their own fanzines and art. In 1991, young women coalesced in an unorganized collective response to several women's issues, such as the Christian Coalition's Right to Life attack on legal abortion and the Senate Judiciary Hearings into Anita Hill's accusations of sexual harassment by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Young feminist voices were heard through multiple protests and events such as the formative opening night of the International Pop Underground Convention and L7's Rock for Choice. Uses and meanings of the term "riot grrrl" developed over time, but its etymological origins can be traced to the actual Mount Pleasant race riots in spring 1991. Bratmobile member Jen Smith, used the phrase "girl riot" in a letter to Allison Wolfe.
Soon afterwards and Molly Neuman collaborated with Kathleen Hanna and Tobi Vail to create a new zine and called it Riot Grrrl, combining the "riot" with an oft-used phrase that first appeared in Vail's fanzine Jigsaw "Revolution Grrrl Style Now". Riot grrrls took a growling double or triple r, placing it in the word girl, as a way to take back the derogatory use of the term. Kathleen Hanna had been studying at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, she participated in a small collective art gallery called Reko Muse, which would host bands like The Go Team and Some Velvet Sidewalk to play in between art exhibitions. Hanna started a band, Amy Carter, with fellow gallery-founders Tammy Rae Carland. After touring with some other projects like Viva Knievel, she hooked up with The Go Team drummer and zinester Tobi Vail, writing of her own experiences: I feel left out of the realm of everything, so important to me, and I know that this is because punk rock is for and by boys and because punk rock of this generation is coming of age in a time of mindless career-goal bands.
They started working together on another fanzine called Bikini Kill, after rec
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blythe Barrymore is an American actress, director, author and entrepreneur. She is a member of the Barrymore family of actors, the granddaughter of John Barrymore, she achieved fame as a child actress with her role in E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BAFTA nomination. Following a publicized childhood marked by drug and alcohol abuse, Barrymore released an autobiography, Little Girl Lost, in 1991, she went on to appear in a string of successful films throughout the decade, including Poison Ivy, Boys on the Side, Mad Love, Ever After and The Wedding Singer. The latter was her first collaboration with Adam Sandler. Barrymore's other films include Never Been Kissed, Charlie's Angels, Donnie Darko, Riding in Cars with Boys, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Fever Pitch and Lyrics, Going the Distance, Big Miracle and Miss You Already. Barrymore made her directorial debut with Whip It, in which she starred, received a SAG Award and a Golden Globe for her performance in Grey Gardens.
She stars on the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet. In 1995, Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen formed the production company Flower Films; the pair have produced several projects. In 2013, Barrymore launched a range of cosmetics under the Flower banner, which has grown to include lines in makeup and eyewear, her other business ventures include a range of a clothing line. In 2015, she released Wildflower. Barrymore received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. Barrymore was born in California, to actor John Barrymore and aspiring actress Jaid. Jaid was born in a displaced persons camp in Brannenburg, West Germany, to Hungarian World War II refugees. Barrymore is one of four children and has a half-brother, an actor, her parents divorced in 1984. Barrymore was born into an acting family. All of her paternal great-grandparents—Maurice and Georgie Drew Barrymore and Mae Costello —as well as her paternal grandparents, John Barrymore and Dolores Costello, were actors, with John being arguably the most acclaimed actor of his generation.
Barrymore is a niece of Diana Barrymore, a grandniece of Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, Helene Costello, a great-great-granddaughter of Irish-born John and English-born Louisa Lane Drew, all of whom were actors. She was a great-grandniece of Broadway idol John Drew Jr. and silent film actor and director Sidney Drew. Barrymore's godmothers are Lee Strasberg's widow, Anna Strasberg, her godfather is director Steven Spielberg. Barrymore's first name, was the maiden name of her paternal great-grandmother, Georgie Drew, her middle name, was the surname of the family first used by her great-grandfather, Maurice Barrymore. In her 1991 autobiography Little Girl Lost, Barrymore recounted early memories of her abusive father, who left the family when Barrymore was 6 months old, she and her father never had anything resembling a significant relationship and spoke to each other. Barrymore grew up on Poinsettia Place in West Hollywood until the age of 7, when she moved to Sherman Oaks. In her 2015 memoir, she says she talks "like a valley girl" because she grew up in Sherman Oaks.
She moved back to West Hollywood upon becoming emancipated at 14. Barrymore attended elementary school at Fountain Day School in Country School. In the wake of her sudden stardom, Barrymore endured a notoriously troubled childhood, she was a regular at the racy Studio 54 as a young girl, her nightlife and constant partying became a popular subject with the media. She was placed in rehab at the age of 13, spent 18 months in an institution for the mentally ill. A suicide attempt at 14 put her back in rehab, followed by a three-month stay with singer David Crosby and his wife; the stay was precipitated, Crosby said, because she "needed to be around some people that were committed to sobriety." Barrymore described this period of her life in her autobiography, Little Girl Lost. After a successful juvenile court petition for emancipation, she moved into her own apartment at the age of 15. Barrymore's professional career began at 11 months, she was nipped by her canine co-star, to which she laughed and was hired for the job.
After her film debut with a small role in Altered States, she played Gertie in E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, directed by Steven Spielberg. He felt that she had the right imagination for her role after she impressed him with a story that she led a punk rock band. E. T. is the highest-grossing film of the 1980s and made her one of the most famous child actors of the time. For her work, she won a Young Artist Award for Best Supporting Actress. In the 1984 horror film adaptation of Stephen King's 1980 novel Firestarter, Barrymore played a girl with pyrokinesis who becomes the target of a secret government agency known as The Shop; the same year, she played a young girl divorcing her famous parents in Irreconcilable Differences, for which she was nominated for her first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. In a review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert stated, "Barrymore is the right actress for this role b
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, except with a longer neck and scale length, four to six strings or courses. The four-string bass is tuned the same as the double bass, which corresponds to pitches one octave lower than the four lowest-pitched strings of a guitar, it is played with the fingers or thumb, or striking with a pick. The electric bass guitar has pickups and must be connected to an amplifier and speaker to be loud enough to compete with other instruments. Since the 1960s, the bass guitar has replaced the double bass in popular music as the bass instrument in the rhythm section. While types of basslines vary from one style of music to another, the bassist plays a similar role: anchoring the harmonic framework and establishing the beat. Many styles of music include the bass guitar, it is a soloing instrument. According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, an "Electric bass guitar a Guitar with four heavy strings tuned E1'-A1'-D2-G2."
It defines bass as "Bass. A contraction of Double bass or Electric bass guitar." According to some authors the proper term is "electric bass". Common names for the instrument are "bass guitar", "electric bass guitar", "electric bass" and some authors claim that they are accurate; the bass guitar is a transposing instrument, as it is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds. In the 1930s, musician and inventor Paul Tutmarc of Seattle, developed the first electric bass guitar in its modern form, a fretted instrument designed to be played horizontally; the 1935 sales catalog for Tutmarc's electronic musical instrument company, featured his "Model 736 Bass Fiddle", a four-stringed, solid-bodied, fretted electric bass guitar with a 30 1⁄2-inch scale length, a single pick up. The adoption of a guitar's body shape made the instrument easier to hold and transport than any of the existing stringed bass instruments; the addition of frets enabled bassists to play in tune more than on fretless acoustic or electric upright basses.
Around 100 of these instruments were made during this period. Audiovox sold their “Model 236” bass amplifier. Around 1947, Tutmarc's son, began marketing a similar bass under the Serenader brand name, prominently advertised in the nationally distributed L. D. Heater Music Company wholesale jobber catalogue of 1948. However, the Tutmarc family inventions did not achieve market success. In the 1950s, Leo Fender and George Fullerton developed the first mass-produced electric bass guitar; the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company began producing the Precision Bass in October 1951. The "P-bass" evolved from a simple, un-contoured "slab" body design and a single coil pickup similar to that of a Telecaster, to something more like a Fender Stratocaster, with a contoured body design, edges beveled for comfort, a split single coil pickup; the "Fender Bass" was a revolutionary new instrument for gigging musicians. In comparison with the large, heavy upright bass, the main bass instrument in popular music from the early 1900s to the 1940s, the bass guitar could be transported to shows.
When amplified, the bass guitar was less prone than acoustic basses to unwanted audio feedback. In 1953 Monk Montgomery became the first bassist to tour with the Fender bass guitar, in Lionel Hampton's postwar big band. Montgomery was possibly the first to record with the bass guitar, on July 2, 1953 with The Art Farmer Septet. Roy Johnson, Shifty Henry, were other early Fender bass pioneers. Bill Black, playing with Elvis Presley, switched from upright bass to the Fender Precision Bass around 1957; the bass guitar was intended to appeal to guitarists as well as upright bass players, many early pioneers of the instrument, such as Carol Kaye, Joe Osborn, Paul McCartney were guitarists. In 1953, following Fender's lead, Gibson released the first short-scale violin-shaped electric bass, with an extendable end pin so a bassist could play it upright or horizontally. Gibson renamed the bass the EB-1 in 1958. In 1958, Gibson released the maple arched-top EB-2 described in the Gibson catalogue as a "hollow-body electric bass that features a Bass/Baritone pushbutton for two different tonal characteristics".
In 1959 these were followed by the more conventional-looking EB-0 Bass. The EB-0 was similar to a Gibson SG in appearance. Whereas Fender basses had pickups mounted in positions in between the base of the neck and the top of the bridge, many of Gibson's early basses featured one humbucking pickup mounted directly against the neck pocket; the EB-3, introduced in 1961 had a "mini-humbucker" at the bridge position. Gibson basses tended to be smaller, sleeker instruments with a shorter scale length than the Precision. A number of other companies began manufacturing bass guitars during the 1950s: Kay in 1952, Hofner and Danelectro in 1956, Rickenbacker in 1957 and Burns/Supersound in 1958. 1956 saw the appearance at the German trade fair "Musikmesse Frankfurt" of the distinctive Höfner 500/1 violin-shaped bass made using violin construction techniques by Walter Höfner, a second-generation violin luthier. The design was known popularly as the "Beat
7 Year Bitch (song)
"7 Year Bitch" is a song by the British rock band Slade, released in 1985 as the second single from the band's twelfth studio album Rogues Gallery. The song was written by lead vocalist Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea, produced by John Punter, it reached No. 60 in the UK. Slade began recording Rogues Gallery in 1984 and in November that year, the lead single, "All Join Hands", was released and reached No. 15 in the UK. In January 1985, "7 Year Bitch" was released as the follow-up single, with both the band and RCA having high expectations for the song. However, the single stalled at No. 60 after it was banned by a number of UK broadcasters due to the song's title. In a 1998 interview, Holder commented of the song: "That was a hit record, but we got a bit of a backlash". "7 Year Bitch" was released on 7" and 12" vinyl by RCA Records in Germany and Japan. The B-side, "Leave Them Girls Alone", was exclusive to the single and would appear on the band's 2007 compilation B-Sides. On the 12" single, an extended version of "7 Year Bitch" was featured as the A-side, a second B-side, a live version of "We'll Bring the House Down" was included, taken from the 1982 live album Slade on Stage.
A music video was filmed to promote the single, directed by Phillip Davey and shot at Ewert Studios in London. Slade's only video to feature sexual connotations, it featured the band performing the song in a large orange tent, with a group of women shown in various shots. Another segment of the video showed Slade dressed in convicts outfits, while the final scene had Slade sit down for a tea party with the women. During filming, Davey suggested the women have a pie fight. Telling the band he would tell the group when to start, he secretly told the women to start whenever they like so that the band were hit in the face first. Recalling the video in 1986, Lea remembered the fight was "in good humour", but that it was quite rough; as a result, both Lea and guitarist Dave Hill suffered some cuts and some frames in the video show Lea's face covered in blood. In 1985, the band performed the song on Saturday Live, it was performed on German TV, on the shows Na Sowas!, Die Spielbude and Pro Koncert. In Norway, the song was performed on the NRK network at the official opening of the Scandic Hotel in Sandvika, Oslo.
In a retrospective review of the album, Sean Carruthers of AllMusic commented: ""7 Year Bitch" could have been a thoughtful look at someone who's attracted to younger women, but kills off any chance of moral high ground with the question "...can you control the bitch?". Given the title of the album such sentiments shouldn't be all that surprising." 7" Single"7 Year Bitch" - 3:58 "Leave Them Girls Alone" - 3:1312" Single"7 Year Bitch" - 5:38 "Leave Them Girls Alone" - 3:13 "We'll Bring the House Down" - 4:33 In 1989, Lea revealed in a Slade fan club interview that he had recorded his own version of "7 Year Bitch", although his version remains unreleased to date. He stated that his version was "not like Slade's version." SladeNoddy Holder - lead vocals Jim Lea - bass, backing vocals, producer of "Leave Them Girls Alone" and "We'll Bring the House Down", arranger Dave Hill - lead guitar, backing vocals Don Powell - drumsAdditional personnelJohn Punter - producer of "7 Year Bitch" The Square Red Studio - design Chris Thomson - front photography Simon Fowler - back photography
Home Alive
Home Alive is a Seattle-based anti-violence organization that offers self-defense classes on a sliding scale payment system. Home Alive once operated as a non-profit organization and now continues to operate as a volunteer collective. Home Alive sees its work as integrated into larger social justice movements, recognizing how violence is perpetuated through oppression and abuse. Home Alive classes included basic physical self-defense, boundary setting, advanced multi-week courses. Following the rape and murder of local singer Mia Zapata in 1993, a number of artists and musicians within Seattle began to meet and discuss the problems of violence within the community, the lack of available resources such as self-defense classes, which were considered impractical and somewhat unaffordable; the birth of this organization was informal, with meetings originating as heated discussions in the living rooms of concerned women from the scene. However the group had trouble deciding how to organize and agreeing on the best methods of self-defense training to teach, so they chose to bring in teachers to help direct the course of their learning.
This group of women, now recognized as the founders of the organization, pooled resources such as arts and music benefits in order to raise funds and study self-defense. Classes were provided to the community for free, but later on a sliding scale basis; this change occurred because the founders were advised not to offer the classes for free because attendees would not value the class if they did not pay for it. However, no one was turned away due to lack of funds; the group continues this work. With primary support still coming from the arts community, Home Alive continues to ground its self-defense education in a movement for social justice. Violence occurs in childhood sexual abuse, date rape, intimate partner violence, sexual harassment; the founders tried out other self-defense classes but they found them lacking due to prices, they offered restrictive rules for women. These rules included how women should dress conservatively and to never walk alone, thus this was another decision to create Home Alive.
Home Alive offers tools, not rules, to everyone seeking more connection in their lives. They promote consensual behavior, believe that we all have a responsibility to respect each other's boundaries and right to self-determination. Home Alive taught not only physical self-defense but as well verbal boundaries like saying "no" when feeling uncomfortable, escape route techniques and much others including going to a therapist, writing in a journal, talking to friends and exercising. For the organization self-defense meant to do anything to make oneself feel strong and able to take care of oneself in order to feel safer. Home Alive moved to the Capitol Hill district in 2004. On June 14, 2010 members of Home Alive's Board of Directors, together with the instructor collective, decided to close as a 501 organization and to lay the Home Alive program dormant after 17 years in the community, they announced their decision to close in an email sent out to the Home Alive and Capitol Hill community, choosing to celebrate their years of work with an all ages party at Hidmo Eritrean cuisine featuring live music and an open mic.
Home Alive included suggestions for other self-defense organizations in the wake of their closure such as INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence and Northwest Network as well as others. Deactivation occurred because of how difficult it was to maintain non-profit structure for the organization, as well as finding space and dependable funding. Members found it difficult to maintain consistent leadership for the group, causing it to fall into disorganization. Home Alive decided to move away from the formalized government structure of a non-profit and instead chose to create a website teaching self-defense; the website became volunteer-based. Since 2010 they have strayed away from the non-profit aspect of the organization and instead formed a small, loosely functioning volunteer collective, they teach a handful of classes at high schools and for other progressive organizations. They have their curriculum available online for all to use. On July 3, 2012 four Home Alive instructors, with the assistance of a few dedicated community members, launched a new website, Teach Home Alive, a site dedicated to archiving and sharing Home Alive's curriculum.
There are other resources that are available to victims as well as people looking to prevent violence against women or other groups. One of these is Her Wits About Her: a powerful anthology that relates dozens of true self-defense success stories by women, dispelling the pervasive myth that it's better not to fight back; this book demonstrates how a combination of strategies can be effective in dangerous situations. Home Alive co-founder Cristien Storm's first book Living in Liberation: Boundary Setting, Self-Care and Social Change is a great visionary resource. Cristien argues that responses to violence can and should embody boundary setting, self care, self-defense skills that interrupt victim-blaming, fear-based approaches and locate healing within the social context of community; this groundbreaking text roots boundary setting and self care in larger visions of happier and healthier communities, all the while holding on to the complexities of individual safety and social justice. Many live music venues in Seattle, San Francisco, New York organized shows to benefit Home Alive, where there would be music and spoken word performances.
These performances were put on by a variety of people including
Chris O'Donnell
Christopher Eugene O'Donnell is an American actor and former model. He played Charlie Simms in Scent of a Woman, D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers, Jack Foley in the drama film Circle of Friends, Dick Grayson/Robin in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, Jason Brown in Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune, Peter Garrett in Vertical Limit. O'Donnell stars as special Agent G. Callen on the CBS crime drama television series NCIS: Los Angeles, a spin-off of NCIS. Christopher O'Donnell was born in Winnetka, the son of William Charles O'Donnell, Sr. a general manager of WBBM-AM, Julie Ann Rohs von Brecht. He is the youngest of seven children, with four sisters and two brothers, is of German and Irish descent, he was raised in a Roman Catholic family and attended Roman Catholic schools, including Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois for high school, graduating in 1988. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in marketing, he began modeling at the age of 13, was featured in several commercials. O'Donnell was discovered when he was cast in a McDonald's commercial, in which he served Michael Jordan.
His first television role was an appearance on the series Jack and Mike in 1986. At the age of 17, he landed. In the early 1990s, he was in many successful movies including Fried Green Tomatoes, School Ties and Scent of a Woman with Al Pacino, he was named one of the 12 Promising New Actors of 1992 in John Willis's Screen World, Vol. 44. After the success of Blue Sky and Circle of Friends, O'Donnell co-starred with Drew Barrymore in the movie Mad Love went on to play Dick Grayson/Robin in Batman Forever, in which Drew Barrymore made an appearance, he was part of a field of candidates that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Toby Stephens, Scott Speedman. Producers narrowed their choices to O'Donnell. At a comic book convention, they asked a group of 11-year-old boys, the target audience, which actor could win a fistfight. After the boys overwhelmingly declared O'Donnell the winner, he was given the role. O'Donnell was said to be 20th Century Fox's favorite choice to play Jack Dawson in Titanic, but DiCaprio ended up with the role.
O'Donnell followed with a starring role based on the John Grisham novel. He subsequently reprised his role as Robin in 1997's Robin. Although a box office success, the movie was critically panned and O'Donnell himself called it a low point in his career, he was considered for the lead role in Spider-Man, when the project was in development with James Cameron directing in 1996. Tobey Maguire was cast. O'Donnell did not appear in another movie for two years, he was the producers' original choice for the role of James Darrell Edwards III/Agent J in Men in Black, after turning it down because he thought the character would be too similar to his role in Batman Forever, the role went to Will Smith. The Robert Altman film Cookie's Fortune, The Bachelor and Vertical Limit were only moderately successful. Following Vertical Limit, a four-year hiatus led some to believe Batman & Robin had damaged O'Donnell's career. However, he came back in 2004 with the praised Kinsey, he appeared in the 2004 episode of Two and a Half Men entitled "An Old Flame With A New Wick."
O'Donnell took a lead role in the Fox Network television series Head Cases in 2005. The show was the first of the fall 2005 season to be canceled, only two episodes were aired, he was subsequently cast as veterinarian Finn Dandridge on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy. O'Donnell featured prominently in the TNT miniseries The Company as CIA case officer Jack McAuliffe, a character who progressed from spoonfed Yale elitist to jaded, post-Cold War cynic. In 2008 he appeared in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl as the titular character's father Jack Kittredge, in Max Payne as Jason Colvin. Since 2009, O'Donnell has starred in NCIS: Los Angeles, a spinoff of NCIS, as G. Callen, an NCIS Special Agent in charge of the Office of Special Projects Team stationed in Los Angeles. CBS describes Callen as "a chameleon who transforms himself into whomever he needs to be to infiltrate the criminal underworld."In 2010, O'Donnell appeared in the sequel to the 2001 movie Cats & Dogs, The Revenge of Kitty Galore.
O'Donnell married Caroline Fentress in April 1997 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Washington, D. C, they have five children. O'Donnell is a practicing Roman Catholic. O'Donnell's brother, founded the clothing company johnnie-O, it was stated in Rolling Stone that he has acrophobia. Chris O'Donnell on IMDb Chris O'Donnell at the TCM Movie Database Chris O'Donnell at the Internet Broadway Database Feature article on O'Donnell in June 2008 issue of Men's Vogue
