1.
Alexander Payne
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Alexander Payne is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer, known for the films Citizen Ruth, Election, About Schmidt, Sideways, The Descendants, and Nebraska. His films are noted for their humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society. Payne is a winner of the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Payne was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Peggy and George Payne, Payne is the youngest of three sons and grew up in what is now known as the Dundee-Happy Hollow Historic District, the same neighborhood as billionaire Warren Buffett. His father is of Greek and German descent, and his mother is of Greek ancestry and his paternal grandfather, Nicholas Nick Payne, anglicized the last name from Papadopoulos. His family comes from three areas in Greece, the island of Syros, Livadia, and Aegio, Paynes family was part of the fabric of Omaha, which he references as part of his upbringing. His grandfather was a founder of The Virginia Cafe, with Paynes father taking over the restaurant, Payne went there regularly as a child. The restaurant was destroyed in a fire in 1969, the W. Dale Clark Library is now located on the site, Paynes paternal grandmother, Clara Payne, was from a German Nebraska family from Lincoln, Nebraska. In Omaha, Payne attended Brownell-Talbot School, Dundee Elementary School and he graduated from Creighton Prep for high school in 1979. At Prep, Payne wrote a column for his high school newspaper and was the editor of the high school yearbook. Payne then attended Stanford University, where he majored in Spanish. Payne got his MFA in 1990 from the UCLA Film School, in the 1960s, Paynes father received a Super 8mm projector from Kraft Foods as a loyalty reward, and eventually passed it on to his son when Alexander was about 14 years old. The ensuing screenplay, which was turned down, would ultimately become About Schmidt and he says that he cleared about $60,000, which was enough to fund his simple lifestyle at the time for about five years. Payne sees his talent as being one of learned economy and he refers to the essay written by Tennessee Williams on The Catastrophe of Success. Payne worked in various capacities on films and television before he co-wrote and directed his first full-length film, Payne was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Election. In 2003 he received a Golden Globe for his screenplay for About Schmidt, to the surprise of many who kept track of Hollywood news, Payne and his writing partner Jim Taylor were not nominated for an Oscar for the About Schmidt screenplay. He won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe in 2005 for Best Adapted Screenplay for Sideways, while the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. In total, Sideways received five Academy Award nominations, Payne returned to directing in 2011 after a seven-year hiatus with the film The Descendants, starring George Clooney
2.
Louis Begley
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Louis Begley is a Jewish American novelist. He is best known for writing the semi-autobiographical Holocaust novel, Wartime Lies, Begley was born Ludwik Begleiter in Stryi at the time part of the Polish Republic and now in Ukraine, as the only child of a physician. Using forged identity papers that enabled them to pretend to be Polish Catholics, his mother and he lived with his mother at first in Lwów, and then in Warsaw until the end of the August 1944 Warsaw uprising. By the time World War II ended, they were in Kraków, during the school year 1945/46, Begley attended the Jan Sobieski gimnazjum in Kraków. It was his first experience of formal instruction since kindergarten during Soviet occupation of Stryj, the family left Poland in the fall of 1946 for Paris and, in late February 1947, left Paris for New York City, arriving March 3,1947. Shortly afterward, the name was changed from Begleiter to Begley. After graduating from Erasmus Hall High School, Begley studied English Literature at Harvard College, whilst at Harvard he worked on The Advocate, an undergraduate literary magazine. Service in the United States Army followed, the last eighteen months of it in Göppingen, Germany, in 1956, Begley married Sally Higginson. They were divorced in May,1970, in March 1974, Begley married his present wife, Anka Muhlstein, a historian and biographer born in Paris. In 1956 Begley entered Harvard Law School, upon his graduation in 1959, he joined the New York firm now known as Debevoise & Plimpton as an associate. He became a partner January 1,1968, while serving at the newly established Paris office and he retired from the firm on January 1,2004. Begleys first novel, Wartime Lies, was based on his childhood as a Polish Jew who escaped the Nazi death camps and it won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in 1991 and the Prix Médicis étranger in 1992. There have been attempts to adapt it into a film by Stanley Kubrick and William Monahan, Begleys 1996 novel About Schmidt was the basis for the eponymous 2002 film by Alexander Payne. Begley’s first nine novels have been published by Alfred A. Knopf and his most recent works have been published as hardcover by Nan A. Talese and reissued as paperback by Ballantine Publishing Company. His novels have been translated into fifteen languages, in 2001, a selection of Begleys essays and journalistic pieces was published by Suhrkamp Verlag under the title Das Gelobte Land. Venedig Unter Vier Augen, a book on Venetian themes by Anka Muhlstein, the Tremendous World I Have Inside My Head, Franz Kafka, A Biographical Essay was published by Atlas & Co. in 2008. Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters was published by Yale University Press in 2009, from 1993 to 1995, Begley was president of PEN American Center. He served on PENs board of directors from 1992-2001 and he is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Letters
3.
Jack Nicholson
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John Joseph Jack Nicholson is an American actor and filmmaker, who has performed for over 60 years. Nicholson is known for playing a range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance and dark portrayals of antiheroes. In many of his films, he has played the eternal outsider, Nicholsons 12 Academy Award nominations make him the most nominated male actor in the Academys history. Nicholson has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, one for the drama One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and he also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the comedy-drama Terms of Endearment. Nicholson is one of three actors to win three Academy Awards. Nicholson is one of two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s. 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 Institutes Life Achievement Award. He played Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubricks horror film The Shining, the Joker in Tim Burtons superhero film Batman, other films include the legal drama A Few Good Men, the Sean Penn-directed mystery film The Pledge, and the comedy-drama About Schmidt. Nicholson was born on April 22,1937, in Neptune City, New Jersey, Nicholsons mother was of Irish, English, and German descent. She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo in 1936, before realizing that he was already married, biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jacks Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, Junes manager, may have been Nicholsons biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was, in 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his sister, June, was actually his mother, and his other sister, Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died, on finding out, Nicholson said it was a pretty dramatic event, but it wasnt what Id call traumatizing. I was pretty well psychologically formed. Nicholson grew up in Neptune City, New Jersey and he was raised in his mothers Roman Catholic religion. Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, nick, as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted class clown by the Class of 1954. He was in every day for a whole school year. A theatre and an award at the school are named in his honor. In 2004, Nicholson attended his 50-year high school reunion accompanied by his aunt Lorraine and he served a tour of duty in the Air National Guard. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was 17 and he took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio
4.
Hope Davis
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Hope Davis is an American actress. She has starred in such as About Schmidt and American Splendor. For her role in the original Broadway production of God of Carnage in 2009 and she has also received two Emmy Award nominations, for her 2009 television roles in the series In Treatment and in the film The Special Relationship. Davis, second of three children, was born in Englewood, New Jersey, the daughter of Joan, a librarian, and William Davis, an engineer. Davis has described her mother as a storyteller who would take Davis. Davis was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey and graduated in 1982 from Tenafly High School and she was a childhood friend of Mira Sorvino, with whom she wrote and acted in backyard plays. Davis graduated from Vassar College with a degree in cognitive science and she is married to actor Jon Patrick Walker. They have two daughters, Georgia and Mae, Davis made her debut as a dramatic actress in the 1990 film Flatliners, starring as William Baldwins fiancée. She then appeared in the hit film Home Alone in a role as a Parisian airport receptionist. Later, she starred in independent films such as The Daytrippers and these led her to roles in Hollywood films such as the thriller Arlington Road, and About Schmidt. In 2003, she starred opposite Paul Giamatti in the adaptation of the Harvey Pekar comic American Splendor as the comic book version of Pekars real-life wife. For this role, Davis won the New York Film Critics Circle award and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, in 2009, she was cast as Hillary Clinton in the BBC / HBO film The Special Relationship, released in 2010. She has received a nomination for Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie for her performance as Clinton. Her major stage debut came after she starred in the Wisdom Bridge/Remains Theater co-production of David Mamets play Speed-the-Plow for Joel Schumacher with William Petersen in Chicago in 1992. Later, she had roles in the New York premiere of Rebecca Gilmans Spinning into Butter in 2000. This was a segment of the sound-only production Theater of the New Ear, the title actually refers to Daviss character leaving the theater. Mia is a successful, unmarried malpractice attorney who returns to therapy with Dr. Paul Weston after a 20-year absence because of a lack of stability in her personal life, Davis also starred in an NBC short-lived drama series called Deadline with Oliver Platt in 2001. She played the ex-wife to Platts character at a newspaper giant, Davis also starred in the short-lived NBC television drama, Allegiance, where she plays Katya OConnor, an ex-KGB agent
5.
Dermot Mulroney
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Dermot Mulroney is an American actor. Acting since the 1980s, he is known for his roles in the films Young Guns, Samantha, Where the Day Takes You, My Best Friends Wedding, The Last Outlaw, About Schmidt, Mulroney played the main antagonist of NBCs Crisis, Francis Gibson. Mulroney was born in Alexandria, Virginia and he has a sister, Moira, and three brothers, Conor, Kieran, and Sean. Moira formerly worked in the Philadelphia DAs office as an assistant district attorney, and later at WXPN, an FM radio station in Philadelphia, but now works elsewhere in the non-profit industry. Some of Mulroneys ancestors emigrated from County Donegal and County Mayo in Ireland during the Irish Potato Famine, he is of seven eighths Irish, Mulroney attended Maury Elementary School and played cello in school and city youth orchestras, as well as acted in childrens community theater. Mulroney attended the Interlochen Arts Camp as a cellist and he later attended T. C. Williams High School as well as Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he was a member of the fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta. Several of his performances have been in romantic comedy films. Mulroney has appeared in movies, including as the male lead in My Best Friends Wedding alongside Julia Roberts. He is probably best known for his roles as either an outlaw or gunman. Mulroney co-starred in the 1988 western Young Guns, for which he is possibly best known, in 1993 Mulroney played J. P, the boyfriend of star Maggie in Point of No Return. In 1994 he starred with Mickey Rourke in The Last Outlaw, Mulroney also played the love interest of Madeleine Stowe in the western Bad Girls. In 2005, he played a male escort alongside Debra Messing in The Wedding Date and he was also in the movie Abduction as Martin Price. Mulroney played Gavin Mitchell on the TV series, Friends and his character dated Rachel for one episode but they broke up when it became too complicated between them because of Ross. In 1993, he wrote the song Someone Elses Used Guitar for Peter Bogdanovichs The Thing Called Love, Mulroney also had a cameo in the Joaquin Phoenix directed video Tired of Being Sorry for Balthazar Gettys band Ringside. Mulroney also is credited as a performer on the movie and for four other tunes. In 2007, Mulroney voiced Green Lantern Hal Jordan in the animated series The Batman in the season 5 episode Ring Toss and he occasionally reads stories on the WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. In 2012, Mulroney played the love interest of Zooey Deschanel, Russell, in 2013, he portrayed the title starring role in the psychotronic horror film The Rambler, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. He also starred alongside Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson, and Stefanie Scott in the 2015 horror sequel Insidious and he is the narrator of Legends & Lies executive produced by Bill OReilly for Fox News Channel
6.
Kathy Bates
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Kathleen Doyle Kathy Bates is an American actress. Bates began her career on the stage, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play in 1983 for her performance in night, Mother. She rose to prominence with her performance in Misery, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. She won another Emmy Award in 2012 for her portrayal as the ghost of Charlie Harper on CBS comedy series Two and a Half Men, Bates was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the youngest of three daughters of homemaker Bertye Kathleen and mechanical engineer Langdon Doyle Bates. Her paternal grandfather was lawyer and author Finis L. Bates, One of her Irish great-great-grandfathers, who immigrated to New Orleans, Louisiana, served as President Andrew Jacksons doctor. She graduated early from White Station High School and from Southern Methodist University and she moved to New York City in 1970 to pursue an acting career. She was nominated for a Tony Award in 1983 for her role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play night. The stage production ran for more than a year, mcNally specifically wrote the play for Bates and F. Murray Abraham, who had to drop out and was replaced by Kenneth Welsh. The play was filmed as Frankie and Johnny, starring Al Pacino. She succeeded Amy Irving in the Off-Broadway production of The Road to Mecca in 1988, Bates first feature film role was in the 1971 Miloš Forman comedy Taking Off, in which she sings an original song Even Horses Had Wings. Bates next feature was the Dustin Hoffman film Straight Time, in 1977, Bates made her Soap opera debut as Phyllis on NBCs soap opera The Doctors. From 1983 to 1984, she played prison inmate Belle Bodelle on All My Children and from 1984 to 1985, in 1990 she would appear again with Hoffman in Warren Beattys Dick Tracy as a stenographer. She appeared in films like The Morning After and Summer Heat and she then landed the role of obsessed fan Annie Wilkes, who holds her favorite author captive, in the 1990 thriller film Misery, based on the Stephen King novel. Bates received her first Academy Award nomination for that role, winning Best Actress, soon after, she starred with Jessica Tandy in the acclaimed 1991 movie Fried Green Tomatoes, based on the novel by comedic actress Fannie Flagg. In 1995 Bates played the character in Dolores Claiborne, a film adaptation of another Stephen King novel. In 1997 Bates played Molly Brown in James Camerons Titanic, based on the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, the film went on to earn more than $1.8 billion in box-office receipts worldwide. For this performance, she received her second Academy Award nomination, in 2002 she received her third nomination, for About Schmidt. More recently, she and Terry Bradshaw played the parents of Matthew McConaugheys character in the 2006 film Failure to Launch, Bates was featured in an uncredited cameo in the miniseries of Stephen Kings The Stand
7.
New Line Cinema
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New Line Cinema is an American film studio that was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as a film distribution company, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of the Turner Broadcasting System in 1994 before Turner merged with Time Warner in 1996, currently, its films are distributed by Warner Bros. New Line Cinema was established in 1967 by the then 27-year-old Robert Shaye as a distribution company, supplying foreign. Shaye operated New Lines offices out of his apartment at 14th Street, one of the companys early successes was its distribution of the 1936 anti-cannabis propaganda film Reefer Madness, which became a cult hit on American college campuses in the early 1970s. New Line also released many classic films, like Stay As You Are, Immoral Tales. The studio has released many of the films of John Waters. In 1976, New Line secured funding to produce its first full-length feature, Stunts, although not considered a critical success, the film performed well commercially on the international market and on television. New Line then produced or co-produced three more films in 1981 and 1983, Alone in the Dark, Xtro and Polyester, a Nightmare on Elm Street was produced and released by New Line in 1984. The resulting franchise was New Lines first commercially successful series after a financial slump. The film was made on a budget of $1.8 million and it was the first film to feature the actor Johnny Depp. A year later, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Freddys Revenge was released, and grossed $3.3 million in its first three days of release and over $30 million at the domestic box office. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Dream Warriors was released in 1987, in November 1990, New Line purchased a 52% stake in the television production company RHI Entertainment, which would later be sold to Hallmark Cards. In May 1991, New Line purchased the video and foreign rights to 600 films held by Sultan Entertainment Holdings. The deal also included an 11-film distribution deal with Turner subsidiary Castle Rock Entertainment, on November 27,1991, New Line purchased Sultan outright. On January 28,1994, New Line Cinema was acquired by the Turner Broadcasting System, New Line Cinema was kept as its own separate entity, while fellow Turner-owned studios Hanna-Barbera Productions and Castle Rock Entertainment eventually became units of Warner Bros. In 2007, New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment collaborated on the 2007 film Fracture, during its time as an entity separate from Warner Bros. New Line Cinema operated several divisions, including distribution, marketing. It was also a partner in founding a new company named Picturehouse in 2005
8.
Actuary
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An actuary is a business professional who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. The name of the profession is actuarial science. These risks can affect both sides of the sheet, and require asset management, liability management, and valuation skills. Actuaries provide assessments of financial security systems, with a focus on their complexity, their mathematics, Actuaries of the 21st century require analytical skills, business knowledge, and an understanding of human behavior and information systems to design and manage programs that control risk. The actual steps needed to become an actuary are usually country-specific, however, almost all processes share a rigorous schooling or examination structure, the profession has consistently been ranked as one of the most desirable. In various studies, being an actuary was ranked number one or two times since 2010. Actuaries use skills primarily in mathematics, particularly calculus-based probability and mathematical statistics, but also economics, computer science, finance, and business. Actuaries assemble and analyze data to estimate the probability and likely cost of the occurrence of an event such as death, sickness, injury, disability, most traditional actuarial disciplines fall into two main categories, life and non-life. Life actuaries, which include health and pension actuaries, primarily deal with mortality risk, morbidity risk, products prominent in their work include life insurance, annuities, pensions, short and long term disability insurance, health insurance, health savings accounts, and long-term care insurance. Non-life actuaries, also known as property and casualty or general insurance actuaries, Actuaries are also called upon for their expertise in enterprise risk management. This can involve dynamic financial analysis, stress testing, the formulation of corporate policy. Actuaries are also involved in areas of the financial services industry. On both the life and casualty sides, the function of actuaries is to calculate premiums. On the casualty side, this often involves quantifying the probability of a loss event, called the frequency. The amount of time that occurs before the event is important. On the life side, the analysis often involves quantifying how much a potential sum of money or a liability will be worth at different points in the future. Forecasting interest yields and currency movements also plays a role in determining future costs, Actuaries do not always attempt to predict aggregate future events. Often, their work may relate to determining the cost of financial liabilities that have occurred, called retrospective reinsurance
9.
WoodmenLife
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WoodmenLife is a not-for-profit fraternal benefit society founded in 1890, based in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that operates a large privately held insurance company for its members. The organization was founded in 1890 in Omaha, Nebraska, by Joseph Cullen Root, Root founded Modern Woodmen of America in Lyons, Iowa, in 1883, after hearing a sermon about pioneer woodsmen clearing away the forest to provide for their families. Taking his own surname to heart, he wanted to start a society that would clear away problems of financial security for its members, after internal dissension within the MWA, Root was ejected from the organization that he had founded. When moving to Omaha, Root decided to start again with a new group he called the Modern Woodmen of the World and he soon dropped the Modern, and the organization became Woodmen of the World. Woodmen of the World began marketing itself as WoodmenLife on June 1,2015, the Woodmen of the World had a female auxiliary called the Woodmen Circles from the early 1890s. Its local units were called local Groves and they were governed by a Supreme Forest, the Circle eventually reached 130,000 members, but it was absorbed by the Woodmen in 1965. During the Woodmen Circle convention of 1897, delegates from nine western states declared their intention to leave the national organization and they formed a new organization called the Pacific Circle, Women of Woodcraft. It changed its name to the Neighbors of Woodcraft in 1917, the first Boys of Woodcraft unit was founded in Jacksonville, Florida in 1903, by J. M. Taylor. In 1979 the Boys of Woodcraft Sportsmens Clubs and the Girls of Woodcraft merged into the Woodmen Rangers and this youth affiliate had 115,471 members in 1979. In the current constitution youth affiliates are called Youth Chapters which are affiliated to adult Chapters, the organization used to own a 19-story tower at 14th and Farnam Streets which was the tallest building between Chicago and the West Coast at the time of its dedication in 1912. WOW built its current 30-story Woodmen Tower in 1969 and it was Omahas tallest building until the completion of the 45-story First National Bank Tower in 2002. The original WOW building was demolished in 1977, the organization played an important role in broadcast history, until it was forced to divest itself of these holdings because of its not-for-profit status. On November 27,1922, the society began broadcasting on the radio station WOAW, in 1926, the station became WOW after the ship SS Henry J. Bibble, which had held the call sign, was retired from service. The organizations not-for-profit status was to cause a battle over ownership of the station. In 1943, the station was leased to an independent organization, Radio Station WOW, the U. S. Supreme Court voided this lease, returning it to the society, but keeping the license in the hands of the station. In 1949, the station began the television station WOW-TV. Among its first performers was Johnny Carson, who had a show called The Squirrels Nest. Stock in the company was bought out by Meredith Corporation in 1958, effectively ending the societys relationship with the station
10.
Omaha, Nebraska
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Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, Omaha is the anchor of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, which includes Council Bluffs, Iowa, across the Missouri River from Omaha. According to the 2010 census, Omahas population was 408,958, according to the 2014 Population Estimates, Omahas population was 446,599. Including its suburbs, Omaha formed the 60th-largest metropolitan area in the United States in 2013, the Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, Nebraska-IA Combined Statistical Area is 931,667, according to the U. S. Census Bureaus 2013 estimate. There are nearly 1.3 million residents within the Greater Omaha area, comprising a 50-mile radius of Downtown Omaha, Omahas pioneer period began in 1854, when the city was founded by speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa. The city was founded along the Missouri River, and a crossing called Lone Tree Ferry earned the city its nickname, Omaha introduced this new West to the world in 1898, when it played host to the Worlds Fair, dubbed the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. During the 19th century, Omahas central location in the United States spurred the city to become an important national transportation hub, throughout the rest of the 19th century, the transportation and jobbing sectors were important in the city, along with its railroads and breweries. In the 20th century, the Omaha Stockyards, once the worlds largest, Omaha is also the home to five Fortune 1000 headquarters, Green Plains Renewable Energy, TD Ameritrade, Valmont Industries, Werner Enterprises, and West Corporation. And Leo A Daly, the Gallup Organization, of Gallup Poll fame, Enron began in Omaha as Northern Natural Gas in 1930, before taking over a smaller Houston company in 1985 to form InterNorth, which Kenneth Lay moved permanently to Houston, in 1987. The modern economy of Omaha is diverse and built on skilled knowledge jobs, in 2009, Forbes identified Omaha as the nations number one Best Bang-For-The Buck City and ranked it number one on Americas Fastest-Recovering Cities list. Also, Omaha hosted the U. S. Olympic swim trials in 2008,2012 and 2016, the word Omaha means Dwellers on the bluff. In 1804 the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed by the riverbanks where the city of Omaha would be built, there was fierce competition among fur traders until John Jacob Astor created the monopoly of the American Fur Company. The Mormons built a town called Cutlers Park in the area in 1846, while it was temporary, the settlement provided the basis for further development in the future. Through 26 separate treaties with the United States federal government, Native American tribes in Nebraska gradually ceded the lands comprising the state. The treaty and cession involving the Omaha area occurred in 1854 when the Omaha Tribe ceded most of east-central Nebraska, Logan Fontenelle, an interpreter for the Omaha and signatory to the 1854 treaty, played an essential role in those proceedings. Before it was legal to claim land in Indian Country, William D. Brown was operating the Lone Tree Ferry to bring settlers from Council Bluffs, Brown is generally credited as having the first vision for a city where Omaha now sits. The passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854 was presaged by the out of claims around the area to become Omaha by residents from neighboring Council Bluffs. On July 4,1854, the city was established at a picnic on Capital Hill
11.
Plan USA
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Plan International USA is an international charity with offices in Warwick, Rhode Island and Washington D. C. It is part of Plan International, an organization founded more than 70 years ago. The stated goal of the organization is to end the cycle of poverty for children, Plan was founded in 1937 by British journalist John Langdon-Davies and refugee worker Eric Muggeridge. Originally named “Foster Parents Plan for Children in Spain, ” the aim was to provide food, during the Second World War, under the name Foster Parents Plan for War Children, the organization expanded to work with displaced children throughout war-torn Europe. By the 1970s, Plan gradually began working with children throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and it was one of the first Plan International federation members. By 2010, Plan’s donor countries had increased to 21, in 1974, the international parent organization Foster Parents Plan shortened its name to become simply Plan International. In the 1990s the U. S. organization followed suit, with a change to “Childreach/Plan International” to avoid the program confused with local foster care programs. Plan International USA is a publicly funded American non-profit charitable organization, deriving its income from a combination of contributions and private. It is exempt from both United States federal and Rhode Island state income tax, the total operating revenue in 2010 for the organization was approximately $63 million. 77% of the funding was reported to go to programs, while 23% was reported as support for programming through fundraising. YUGA, Youth United in Global Action, is a program sponsored by Plan International USA, YUGA aims to educate and involve young people in the United States in issues that affect children and youth around the world. The program’s main focus areas are, climate change, global poverty, HIV and AIDS, child rights and child exploitation, the child sponsorship program links each sponsor to an individual child in one of the 48 countries where Plan International works. Sponsors contribute money and have an opportunity to correspond with the child, donations are not given directly to the child but are used to support projects for entire communities. Along with microloans, direct sponsorship projects have been described to be an option for people interested in contributing to a do it yourself style of foreign aid, Plan International USA employs 97 staff and has a separate governing body and Executive Team from Plan International. As of 2010, the members of the Board of Directors include, Tessie San Martin, laurie Metcalf, actress known for playing “Jackie Harris” on ‘’Roseanne’’, is a spokesperson for Plan International USA and a child sponsor through the organization. The organization was featured in the 2002 film About Schmidt, Plan International USA website Plan International website YUGA blog Plan Research and Reports
12.
Tanzania
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Tanzania /ˌtænzəˈniːə/, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in Eastern Africa within the African Great Lakes region. Parts of the country are in Southern Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro, Africas highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania. Tanzanias population of 51.82 million is diverse, composed of ethnic, linguistic. Dar es Salaam, the capital, retains most government offices and is the countrys largest city, principal port. Tanzania is a one party dominant state with the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party in power, from its formation until 1992, it was the only legally permitted party in the country. Elections for president and all National Assembly seats were last held in October 2015, the CCM holds approximately 75% of the seats in the assembly. Prehistoric population migrations include Southern Cushitic speakers, who are ancestral to the Iraqw, Gorowa, and Burunge and who moved south from Ethiopia into Tanzania. Based on linguistic evidence, there may also have two movements into Tanzania of Eastern Cushitic people at about 4,000 and 2,000 years ago. These movements took place at about the time as the settlement of the iron-making Mashariki Bantu from West Africa in the Lake Victoria. They brought with them the west African planting tradition and the staple of yams. They subsequently migrated out of these regions across the rest of Tanzania, European colonialism began in mainland Tanzania during the late 19th century when Germany formed German East Africa, which gave way to British rule following World War I. The mainland was governed as Tanganyika, with the Zanzibar Archipelago remaining a separate colonial jurisdiction, following their respective independence in 1961 and 1963, the two entities merged in April 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. Tanzania is mountainous and densely forested in the northeast, where Mount Kilimanjaro is located, three of Africas Great Lakes are partly within Tanzania. To the north and west lie Lake Victoria, Africas largest lake, and Lake Tanganyika, the eastern shore is hot and humid, with the Zanzibar Archipelago just offshore. The Menai Bay Conservation Area is Zanzibars largest marine protected area, over 100 different languages are spoken in Tanzania, making it the most linguistically diverse country in East Africa. Among the languages spoken in Tanzania are all four of Africas language families, Bantu, Cushitic, Nilotic, Swahili and English are Tanzanias official languages. In connection with his Ujamaa social policies, President Nyerere encouraged the use of Swahili, approximately 10% of Tanzanians speak Swahili as a first language, and up to 90% speak it as a second language. Most Tanzanians thus speak both Swahili and a language, many educated Tanzanians are trilingual, also speaking English
13.
Winnebago Industries
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Winnebago Industries Inc. is an American manufacturer of motor homes, a type of recreational vehicle or RV, in the United States. It is based in Forest City, Iowa, the company was founded by Forest City businessman John K. Hanson in February 1958. Surviving a rough beginning, the operation was purchased by five Midwesterners. In 1960 the name of the company was changed to Winnebago Industries, to improve quality, Winnebago Industries manufactured furniture and other components designed specifically for its travel trailers. One such innovation was the Thermo-Panel, a strong, lightweight sidewall that was a characteristic of Winnebago products, in 1966 the first motor home rolled off the Winnebago Industries assembly lines. These motor homes were sold at a price approximately half of what was being charged for competitors models, the brand name has become synonymous with motor home and is commonly used as a generic trademark for such vehicles, whether they were produced by the company or not. Through the 1970s and into the 1980s model names were influenced by the Native American tribe of the name and included the Brave, the Indian, the Chieftain. Older Winnebago RVs are often recognizable by the painted w on the side of the vehicle, with a stripe that connects the front, in 1973, the company introduced a new model, the Minnie Winnie, built on the Dodge B-series van chassis. It was about 19-1/2 feet long, longer models were added through the years. This model continues to this day, as gas prices went up over time, the company made smaller models available, such as the Winnie Wagon, with a low profile and pop-top. The company also developed a line of smaller units slightly larger than a van, built using various bodies. This tradition continues today with Winnebagos use of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, in December 2010 Winnebago Industries entered a new chapter when the company purchased SunnyBrook RV, re-entering the towable manufacturing market for the first time since 1983. In March 2015, Winnebago announced that it was opening a center to employ 70 in Waverly, Iowa. The company now employs about 2,400 workers in Forest City,200 in Charles City and 60 in Lake Mills, plus additional employees in Middlebury, Indiana. Versions of Winnebago models were manufactured in Australia by Binnss Knott Investments, using a logo which bore a resemblance to Winnebagos U. S. logo. In 1992, Winnebago and Binns signed a settlement for him to stop passing off his products as those of Winnebago, in 1997 he registered Winnebago as a trademark in Australia. The court ordered the cancellation of this Winnebago trademark in Australia, as a result of the case, a disclaimer was required to be made clear on any vehicles made by Knott in the future, and on any advertising and promotional material. The disclaimer reads These vehicles were not manufactured by, or by anyone having any association with, in 2014 Avida RV announced they would reintroduce the Winnebago name and logo to their premium range of RV products
14.
Denver
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Denver, officially the City and County of Denver, is the capital and most populous municipality of the U. S. state of Colorado. Denver is in the South Platte River Valley on the edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile above sea level, making it the highest major city in the United States. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich, the reference for the Mountain Time Zone. Denver is ranked as a Beta- world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. With a 2015 estimated population of 682,545, Denver ranks as the 19th-most populous U. S. city, and with a 2. 8% increase in 2015, the city is also the fastest-growing major city in the United States. The 10-county Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 2,814,330 and ranked as the 19th most populous U. S. metropolitan statistical area. The 12-city Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 3,418,876, which ranks as the 16th most populous U. S. metropolitan area. Denver is the most populous city of the 18-county Front Range Urban Corridor, Denver is the most populous city within a 500-mile radius and the second-most populous city in the Mountain West after Phoenix, Arizona. In 2016, Denver was named the best place to live in the USA by U. S. News & World Report and this was the first historical settlement in what was later to become the city of Denver. The site faded quickly, however, and by the summer of 1859 it was abandoned in favor of Auraria, Larimer named the townsite Denver City to curry favor with Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver. Larimer hoped the name would help make it the county seat of Arapaho County but, unbeknownst to him. The location was accessible to existing trails and was across the South Platte River from the site of seasonal encampments of the Cheyenne, the site of these first towns is now the site of Confluence Park near downtown Denver. Larimer, along with associates in the St. Charles City Land Company, sold parcels in the town to merchants and miners, Denver City was a frontier town, with an economy based on servicing local miners with gambling, saloons, livestock and goods trading. In the early years, land parcels were often traded for grubstakes or gambled away by miners in Auraria, in May 1859, Denver City residents donated 53 lots to the Leavenworth & Pikes Peak Express in order to secure the regions first overland wagon route. Offering daily service for passengers, mail, freight, and gold, in 1863, Western Union furthered Denvers dominance of the region by choosing the city for its regional terminus. The Colorado Territory was created on February 28,1861, Arapahoe County was formed on November 1,1861, Denver City served as the Arapahoe County Seat from 1861 until consolidation in 1902. In 1867, Denver City became the territorial capital, with its newfound importance, Denver City shortened its name to Denver
15.
Pyramid scheme
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As recruiting multiplies, recruiting becomes quickly impossible, and most members are unable to profit, as such, pyramid schemes are unsustainable and often illegal. Pyramid schemes have existed for at least a century in different guises, some multi-level marketing plans have been classified as pyramid schemes. In a pyramid scheme, an organization compels individuals who wish to join to make a payment, in exchange, the organization promises its new members a share of the money taken from every additional member that they recruit. The directors of the organization receive a share of these payments. Such organizations seldom involve sales of products or services with value, without creating any goods or services, the only revenue streams for the scheme are recruiting more members, or soliciting more money from current members. The behavior of pyramid schemes follows the mathematics concerning exponential growth quite closely, each level of the pyramid is much larger than the one before it. For a pyramid scheme to make money for everyone who enrolls in it, it would have to expand indefinitely and this is not possible because the population of Earth is finite. When the scheme inevitably runs out of new recruits, lacking other sources of revenue, because in a geometric series, the biggest terms are at the end, most people will be in the lower levels of the pyramid. In a pyramid scheme, people in the upper layers typically profit while people in the lower layers typically lose money, since at any given time, most of the members in the scheme are at the bottom, most participants in a pyramid scheme will not make any money. In particular, when the scheme collapses, most members will be in the layers and thus will not have any opportunity to profit from the scheme. Therefore, a scheme is characterized by a few people making large amounts of money. For this reason, they are considered scams, many pyramids are more sophisticated than the simple model. These recognize that recruiting a number of others into a scheme can be difficult so a seemingly simpler model is used. In this model each person must recruit two others, but the ease of achieving this is offset because the required to recoup any money also increases. The scheme requires a person to two others, who must each recruit two others, and so on. Prior instances of this scheme have been called the Airplane Game and the four tiers labelled as captain, co-pilot, crew, another instance was called the Original Dinner Party which labeled the tiers as dessert, main course, side salad, and appetizer. A person on the course is the one at the top of the tree. Another variant, Treasure Traders, variously used gemology terms such as polishers, stone cutters, such schemes may try to downplay their pyramid nature by referring to themselves as gifting circles with money being gifted
16.
Waterbed
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A waterbed, water mattress, or flotation mattress is a bed or mattress filled with water. Waterbeds intended for medical therapies appear in reports through the 19th century. The modern version, invented in San Francisco and patented in 1971, currently they account for less than 5% of new bed sales. Waterbeds primarily consist of two types, hard-sided beds and soft-sided beds, a hard-sided waterbed consists of a water-containing mattress inside a rectangular frame of wood resting on a plywood deck that sits on a platform. A soft-sided waterbed consists of a water-containing mattress inside of a frame of sturdy foam, zippered inside a fabric casing. It looks like a bed and is designed to fit existing bedroom furniture. The platform usually looks like a foundation or box spring. Early waterbed mattresses, and many inexpensive modern mattresses, have a water chamber. When the water mass in these free flow mattresses is disturbed, significant wave action can be felt, later types employed wave-reducing methods, including fiber batting and interconnected water chambers. More expensive waveless modern waterbeds have a mixture of air and water chambers, temperature is controlled via a thermostat and set to personal preference, but is most commonly average skin temperature,30 °C or about 86 °F. A typical heating pad consumes 150–400 watts of power, depending on insulation, bedding, temperature, use, and other factors, electricity usage may vary, significantly. Waterbeds are usually constructed from polyvinyl chloride or similar material. They can be repaired with practically any vinyl repair kit, a form of waterbed was invented in the early 19th century by the Scottish physician Neil Arnott. Dr. Arnotts Hydrostatic Bed was devised to prevent bedsores in invalids, Arnott didnt patent it, permitting anyone to construct a bed to this design. The use of a waterbed is mentioned in Elizabeth Gaskells 1855 novel North and South, in 1871, a waterbed was in use in Elmira, New York, for invalids. It was briefly mentioned by Mark Twain in his article A New Beecher Church which was published in The New York Times on 23 July 1871, Twain wrote, In the infirmary will be kept one or two water-beds and half a dozen reclining invalid-chairs on wheels. The water-beds and invalid-chairs at present belonging to the church are always in demand, science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein described therapeutic waterbeds in his novels Beyond This Horizon, Double Star, and Stranger in a Strange Land. Heinlein made no attempt to build his invention, the modern waterbed was created by Charles Prior Hall in 1968, while he was a design student at San Francisco State University in California
17.
University of Kansas
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The University of Kansas, often referred to as KU or Kansas, is a public research university in the U. S. state of Kansas. The main campus in Lawrence, one of the largest college towns in Kansas, is on Mount Oread, two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area, the Edwards Campus in Overland Park, and the universitys medical school and hospital in Kansas City. There are also educational and research sites in Parsons, Topeka, Garden City, Hays, and Leavenworth, the university is one of the 62 members of the Association of American Universities. The university overall employed 2,814 faculty members in fall 2015, on February 20,1863, Kansas Governor Thomas Carney signed into law a bill creating the state university in Lawrence. The law was conditioned upon a gift from Lawrence of a $15,000 endowment fund, if Lawrence failed to meet these conditions, Emporia instead of Lawrence would get the university. The site selected for the university was a known as Mount Oread. Robinson and his wife Sara bestowed the 40-acre site to the State of Kansas in exchange for land elsewhere, the philanthropist Amos Adams Lawrence donated $10,000 of the necessary endowment fund, and the citizens of Lawrence raised the remaining cash by issuing notes backed by Governor Carney. On November 2,1863, Governor Carney announced that Lawrence had met the conditions to get the university. The schools Board of Regents held its first meeting in March 1865, work on the first college building began later that year. The university opened for classes on September 12,1866, during World War II, Kansas was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission. KU is home to the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, the Beach Center on Disability, Lied Center of Kansas and radio stations KJHK,90.7 FM, and KANU,91.5 FM. The university is host to several including the University of Kansas Natural History Museum. The University of Kansas is a large, state-sponsored university, with five campuses, the university offers more than 345 degree programs. In its 2017 list, U. S. News & World Report ranked KU as tied for 118th place among National Universities and 56th place among public universities. The city management and urban policy program was ranked first in the nation, uSN&WR also ranked several programs in the top 25 among U. S. universities. The Bachelor of Architecture degree was added in 1920, in 1969, the School of Architecture and Urban Design was formed with three programs, architecture, architectural engineering, and urban planning. In 2001 architectural engineering merged with civil and environmental engineering, the design programs from the discontinued School of Fine Arts were merged into the school in 2009 forming the current School of Architecture, Design, and Planning. S in 2012. The University of Kansas School of Business is a business school on the main campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence
18.
Holdrege, Nebraska
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Holdrege is a city in Phelps County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 5,495 at the 2010 census and it is the county seat of Phelps County. Holdrege was established in 1883 when the railroad was extended to that point and it was named for George W. Holdrege, a railroad official. Holdrege was designated county seat in 1884, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.87 square miles, of which,3.86 square miles is land and 0.01 square miles is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 5,495 people,2,351 households, the population density was 1,423.6 inhabitants per square mile. There were 2,589 housing units at a density of 670.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 96. 7% White,0. 1% African American,0. 4% Native American,0. 2% Asian,1. 5% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 4. 7% of the population. 32. 4% of all households were made up of individuals and 14. 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.87. The median age in the city was 42.4 years. 23. 8% of residents were under the age of 18,6. 7% were between the ages of 18 and 24,22. 3% were from 25 to 44, 28% were from 45 to 64, and 19. 3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48. 5% male and 51. 5% female, as of the census of 2000, there were 5,636 people,2,355 households, and 1,544 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,498.5 people per square mile, there were 2,602 housing units at an average density of 691.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 97. 29% White,0. 14% African American,0. 34% Native American,0. 25% Asian,1. 03% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 3. 11% of the population. 30. 4% of all households were made up of individuals and 14. 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.93. In the city, the population was out with 25. 5% under the age of 18,6. 2% from 18 to 24,25. 6% from 25 to 44,23. 9% from 45 to 64. The median age was 40 years, for every 100 females there were 92.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.2 males, as of 2000 the median income for a household in the city was $36,225, and the median income for a family was $44,939. Males had an income of $29,288 versus $22,281 for females
19.
June Squibb
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June Louise Squibb is an American actress. She played supporting characters in films, such as Alice, Scent of a Woman, The Age of Innocence, In & Out. Squibb appeared on Broadway for the production of Gypsy. She also starred in two Alexander Payne films, including About Schmidt and Nebraska, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, Squibb was born and raised in Vandalia, Illinois, the only child of JoyBelle and Lewis Squibb. Her father was in the business and served in the Navy during World War II. Squibbs first husband was actor Edward Sostek, the two divorced and she is the widow of her second husband, acting teacher Charles Kakatsakis, with whom she has one child, Harry Kakatsakis, a filmmaker best known for his short film Admissions. Squibb converted to Judaism when she married Edward Sostek in the 1950s, when asked about ageism in show business, Squibb has stated, Well, it’s like anything else. I always feel, rules are meant to be broken, Squibb began her career in musical theatre at the St. Louis Muny and trained at the Cleveland Play House, and at the HB Studio after moving to New York City. In 2015, she was inducted into the Cleveland Play House Hall of Fame and she got her big break in New York by landing the role of Dulcie in The Boyfriend Off-Broadway in 1958. In 1959, she performed in an Off-Broadway revival of Lend an Ear starring Elizabeth Allen and she made her Broadway debut in the original production of Gypsy starring Ethel Merman, taking over the role of stripper Electra in 1960. She next appeared in The Happy Time, which opened in 1968 and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical, in-between these periods June also did modeling work for romance novels and did commercials. In 1995, she appeared in the play Sacrilege on Broadway, Squibb also played many roles in national tours, regional theatre, summer stock and off-Broadway. In 2012, she played the matriarch Stella Gordon in Dividing the Estate at the Dallas Theater Center for which she received standout reviews
20.
Howard Hesseman
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Howard Hesseman is an American actor best known for playing disc jockey Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati and schoolteacher Charlie Moore on Head of the Class. Hesseman was born in Lebanon, Oregon, the son of Edna and his parents divorced when he was five, and he was raised by his mother and stepfather, a police officer. He graduated from Silverton High School in 1958, Hesseman attended the University of Oregon, and was later a founding member of the San Francisco-based improvisational comedy troupe The Committee with fellow actor David Ogden Stiers. Early in his career, he used the alias Don Sturdy. In this Dragnet episode, his character was a panelist on a TV show opposite Sgt and he played a bit part in two final-season episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. In the episode Sam for Town Council, Hesseman has an exchange with Emmett Clark, Hesseman plays a character named Harry seen preparing fishing tackle outside a sporting goods store and complaining to Emmett how poor the fishing has been at a nearby fishing spot. Emmett promises to stock the pond with big perch in exchange for Harrys vote, Harry agrees and wears a campaign button supporting Emmett in the race. Hesseman made several appearances as Mr. Plager, a member of the group therapy ensemble on The Bob Newhart Show and he became a playwright in the sixth season of the show, writing a play about the characters in the group. In several other episodes of the show, Hessemans voice can be heard as a TV announcer, in 1969, he appeared uncredited with The Committee in several sketches on The Dick Cavett Show, and appeared in one sketch with guest Janis Joplin. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1980 and 1981 for his portrayal of Fever, in 1986, he was in the Disney cult classic Flight of the Navigator. He reprised the role in nine episodes of The New WKRP in Cincinnati, Hesseman is also remembered for his role as teacher Charlie Moore on the ABC series Head of the Class from 1986 to 1990. He also played Sam Royer, the man who married Ann Romano on One Day at a Time, in 1994, Hesseman introduced lost footage of Joplin in a documentary on Woodstock. He made two appearances on Saturday Night Live, one in which he paid tribute to, and told jokes about, the recently deceased John Belushi, NBC showed a picture of Reagan, and Hesseman mooned the president off camera. He also encouraged the audience to moon the picture and send pictures in to NBC. In 1995, Hesseman played the role of the Marquis de Sade in Quills at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, California. In 2001, Hesseman had a role on three episodes of That 70s Show, in 2006, he appeared in three episodes of the ABC television series Boston Legal, playing the unorthodox Judge Robert Thompson, as well as an episode of House. Moore taught his class atop his desk, in 2007, he played The Chemist on HBOs John From Cincinnati. He has guest-starred as an announcer at a track on Psych
21.
Harry Groener
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Harry Groener is a German-born American actor and dancer, perhaps best known for playing Mayor Wilkins in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Groener was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany to an opera singer mother and a father who worked as a concert pianist, office clerk and he emigrated to the United States with his family at the age of two. As a teenager, Groener was apprenticed at the San Francisco Ballet and his Broadway credits include Is there life after high school. Munkustrap in Cats, Georges/George in Sunday in the Park with George, in 1998 and 1999, Groener portrayed Richard Wilkins, the evil mayor of Sunnydale on the third season of cult TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Groener reprised his role in cameo appearances in Buffys 4th and 7th seasons, from 2004 to 2006 he appeared as the chef Gunther on the TV series Las Vegas. Notable film work includes Road to Perdition and About Schmidt and he also appeared in two episodes of The West Wing as the Secretary of Agriculture and the Bones episode The Woman at the Airport as a plastic surgeon, Henry Atlas. In 2009, Groener appeared in the season episode of Breaking Bad, Bit by a Dead Bee. He also portrayed the role of Clint, Teds stepdad, in How I Met Your Mother and he played King Arthur in Monty Pythons Spamalot during 2006. In 2010, he appeared as the role in the Antaeus Companys production of King Lear. He won the L. A. Drama Critics Circle Award for this performance
22.
Len Cariou
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Leonard Joseph Len Cariou is a Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which earned him a Tony award. He currently plays the patriarch, Henry Reagan, NYPD Police Commissioner, born in St. Boniface, today a city ward of Winnipeg, later moving to East Kildonan, Manitoba, Cariou is the son of Molly Estelle and George Marius Cariou, a salesman. His father was Breton and his mother was of Irish descent, Cariou attended Miles Macdonell Collegiate for grades ten and eleven where he directed and starred in the school plays, and he later attended St Pauls College. Cariou made his first appearance in Damn Yankees at Rainbow Stage in Winnipeg in 1959 and he was offered a scholarship at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal but, married with a young child and financial responsibilities, he was forced to turn it down. Instead, he learned his craft by spending two years at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival Stratford, Ontario, and returned in 1981 to lead the company as Prospero, Coriolanus, Brutus and he was also an Associate Director. In 1968, Cariou made his Broadway debut in The House of Atreus, two years later, Cariou landed his first starring role opposite Lauren Bacall in Applause, a musical adaptation of the film All About Eve. It earned him a Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Musical, in 1973 he garnered his second Tony nod for A Little Night Music, he repeated the role of Fredrik for the 1977 film version opposite Elizabeth Taylor. Six years later he won both the Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in the Stephen Sondheim musical opposite Angela Lansbury, stuart McDowell at the Symphony Space in 1985. His next projects, the Alan Jay Lerner–Charles Strouse musical Dance a Little Closer, Arthur Millers sole musical, Up from Paradise, Teddy & Alice, Ziegfeld. Cariou also appeared on Broadway in Night Watch, Cold Storage, The Speed of Darkness, Neil Silmons The Dinner Party and he directed Dont Call Back on Broadway as well. His off-Broadway appearances include Master Class, Papa and Mountain and he appeared as Capn Andy in the Broadway national tour of Showboat opposite Cloris Leachman. He has played the role of Macbeth for Toronto Arts Productions. He has appeared multiple times throughout his career at the Manitoba Theatre Centre and he also appeared at The Geffen in Neil Simons Rose and Walsh and Heroes with George Segal. From 1985 to 1992, Cariou was seen on episodes of the popular television mystery series, Murder, She Wrote opposite his good friend. Cariou portrayed the character of Michael Hagerty. Hagerty was an Irish international man of mystery who worked as a agent for British MI-6. He would get Jessica Fletcher, the character of the show. In 1993, Cariou was in the made-for-TV movie Miracle on Interstate 880
23.
Rotten Tomatoes
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Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by Senh Duong and since January 2010 has been owned by Flixster, in February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcasts Fandango. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, since 2007, the websites editor-in-chief has been Matt Atchity. The name, Rotten Tomatoes, derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a stage performance. From early 2008 to September 2010, Current Television aired the weekly The Rotten Tomatoes Show, featuring hosts, a shorter segment was incorporated into the weekly show, InfoMania, which ended in 2011. In September 2013, the website introduced TV Zone, a section for reviewing scripted TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12,1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His goal in creating Rotten Tomatoes was to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of critics in the U. S. As a fan of Jackie Chans, Duong was inspired to create the website after collecting all the reviews of Chans movies as they were being published in the United States, the first movie whose reviews were featured on Rotten Tomatoes was Your Friends & Neighbors. The website was an success, receiving mentions by Netscape, Yahoo. and USA Today within the first week of its launch. They officially launched it on April 1,2000, in June 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired rottentomatoes. com for an undisclosed sum. In September 2005, IGN was bought by News Corps Fox Interactive Media, in January 2010, IGN sold the website to Flixster. The combined reach of both companies is 30 million unique visitors a month across all different platforms, according to the companies, in May 2011, Flixster was acquired by Warner Bros. In early 2009, Current Television launched the version of the web review site. It was hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox and written by Mark Ganek, the show aired every Thursday at 10,30 EST on the Current TV network. The last episode aired on September 16,2010 and it returned as a much shorter segment of InfoMania, a satirical news show that ended in 2011. By late 2009, the website was designed to enable Rotten Tomatoes users to create, one group, The Golden Oyster Awards, accepted votes of members for different awards, as if in parallel to the better-known Oscars or Golden Globes. When Flixster bought the company, they disbanded the groups, announcing, in the meantime, please use the Forums to continue your conversations about your favorite movie topics. As of February 2011, new community features have been added, for example, users can no longer sort films by fresh ratings from rotten ratings, and vice versa
24.
Metacritic
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Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of media products, music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs, and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged, Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source, a color of Green, Yellow or Red summarizes the critics recommendations and therefore the general appeal of the product to reviewers and, to a lesser extent, the public. It is regarded as the game industrys foremost review aggregator. Metacritics scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to the critics fame, stature, and volume of reviews. Metacritic was launched in July 1999 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews, but Doyle, Roberts, and Dietz saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media. They sold Metacritic to CNET in 2005, CNET and Metacritic are now owned by the CBS Corporation. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal wrote in September 2004, Mr. Doyle,36, is now a product manager at CNET. Speaking of video games, Doyle said, A site like ours helps people cut through. unobjective promotional language and he added that the review process was not taken as seriously when unconnected magazines and websites provided reviews in isolation. In August 2010, the appearance was revamped, reaction from users was overwhelmingly negative. Certain publications are given more significance because of their stature, games Editor Marc Doyle was interviewed by Keith Stuart of The Guardian to get a look behind the metascoring process. Stuart wrote, the phenomenon, namely Metacritic and GameRankings, have become an enormously important element of online games journalism over the past few years. The ranging of metascores is, Metacritic is regarded as the foremost online review site for the video game industry. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal has written that Metacritic influence the sales of games and he explains its influence as coming from the higher cost of buying video games than music or movie tickets. Many executives say that low scores can hurt the sales potential. He claimed that a number of businesses and financial analysts use Metacritic as an early indicator of a games potential sales and, by extension. In 2004, Jason Hall of Warner Bros. began including quality metrics in contracts with partners licensing its movies for games, if a product does not at least achieve a specific score, some deals require the publisher to pay higher royalties. In 2008, Microsoft began using Metacritic averages to de-list underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games and these are the top 10 individual games with the highest scores on the site as of 2 April 2017
25.
CinemaScore
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CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their experiences with letter grades, reports the results. A Yom Kippur donation card with tabs inspired the survey cards given to audience members, the company conducts surveys to audiences who have seen a film in theaters, asking them to rate the film and specifying what drew them to the film. Its results are published in Entertainment Weekly, CinemaScore pollster Dede Gilmore reported the trend in 1993, Most movies get easily a B-plus. I think people come wanting the entertainment, theyre more lenient with their grades. But as do it more and more, they get to be stronger critics, in 1993, films that were graded with an A included Scent of a Woman, A Few Good Men, and Falling Down. Films graded with a B included Sommersby and Untamed Heart, a C-grade film for the year was Body of Evidence. CinemaScore at first reported its findings to consumers, including a newspaper column, after 20th Century Fox approached the company in 1989, it began selling the data to studios instead. A website was launched by CinemaScore in 1999, after three years delay in which the president sought sponsorship from magazines and video companies, brad Peppard was president of CinemaScore Online from 1999 to 2002. The website included a database of nearly 2,000 feature films, prior to the launch, CinemaScore results had been published in Las Vegas Review-Journal and Reno Gazette-Journal. CinemaScores expansion to the Internet included a weekly email subscription for cinephiles to keep up with reports of audience reactions, in 1999, CinemaScore was rating approximately 140 films a year, including 98–99% of major studio releases. In the summer of 2002, CinemaScore reported that the season had the biggest collective grade since 1995, in the summer of 2000,25 out of 32 films received either an A or B grade. Twenty-six of the summer of 2001s 30 films got similar grades, while 32 of the summer of 2002s 34 films got similar grades, thirty-five to 45 teams of CinemaScore representatives are present in 25 large cities across North America. Each Friday, representatives in five randomly chosen cities give opening-day audiences a small survey card. The card asks for age, gender, a grade for the film between A+ and F, whether they would rent or buy the film on DVD or Blu-ray, and why they chose the film. CinemaScore typically receives about 400 cards per film, the company estimates a 65% response rate, the ratings are divided by gender and age groups, film studios and other subscribers receive the data at about 11 p. m. Pacific Time. Subsequent advertisements for highly ranked films often cite their CinemaScore grades, an A+ grade from CinemaScore for a film typically predicts a successful box office. From 1982 to August 2011, only 52 films received the top grade, A+ films include Titanic, Tangled, The Kings Speech, A Few Good Men, Driving Miss Daisy, and Toy Story 2
26.
Roger Ebert
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Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic and historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, the two verbally sparred and traded humorous barbs while discussing films. They created and trademarked the phrase Two Thumbs Up, used when both hosts gave the film a positive review. After Siskel died in 1999, Ebert continued hosting the show with various co-hosts and then, starting in 2000, Ebert lived with cancer of the thyroid and salivary glands from 2002. This required treatments necessitating the removal of his jaw, which cost him the ability to speak or eat normally. His ability to write remained unimpaired, however, and he continued to publish frequently both online and in print until his death on April 4,2013. Roger Joseph Ebert was born in Urbana, Illinois, the child of Annabel, a bookkeeper, and Walter Harry Ebert. He was raised Roman Catholic, attending St. Marys elementary school and his paternal grandparents were German immigrants and his maternal ancestry was Irish and Dutch. In his senior year, he was president and editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper. In 1958, he won the Illinois High School Association state speech championship in radio speaking, regarding his early influences in film criticism, Ebert wrote in the 1998 parody collection Mad About the Movies, I learned to be a movie critic by reading Mad magazine. Mads parodies made me aware of the machine inside the skin – of the way a movie might look original on the outside, I did not read the magazine, I plundered it for clues to the universe. Pauline Kael lost it at the movies, I lost it at Mad magazine, Ebert began taking classes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an early-entrance student, completing his high-school courses while also taking his first university class. After graduating from Urbana High School in 1960, Ebert then attended and received his degree in 1964. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, One of the first movie reviews he ever wrote was a review of La Dolce Vita, published in The Daily Illini in October 1961. Ebert spent a semester as a student in the department of English there before attending the University of Cape Town on a Rotary fellowship for a year. He returned from Cape Town to his studies at Illinois for two more semesters and then, after being accepted as a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago. Instead Kogan referred Ebert to the city editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, Jim Hoge and he attended doctoral classes at the University of Chicago while working as a general reporter at the Sun-Times for a year
27.
Chicago Sun-Times
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The Chicago Sun-Times is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the paper of the Sun-Times Media Group. The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city and it began in 1844 as the Chicago Daily Journal, which was the first newspaper to publish the rumor, now believed false, that a cow owned by Catherine OLeary was responsible for the Chicago fire. The Evening Journal, whose West Side building at 17-19 S. Canal was undamaged, in 1929, the newspaper was relaunched as the Chicago Daily Illustrated Times. The modern paper grew out of the 1948 merger of the Chicago Sun, founded December 4,1941 by Marshall Field III, and the Chicago Daily Times. The newspaper was owned by Field Enterprises, controlled by the Marshall Field family, when the Daily News ended its run in 1978, much of its staff, including Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mike Royko, were moved to the Sun-Times. During the Field period, the newspaper had a populist, progressive character that leaned Democratic but was independent of the citys Democratic establishment, although the graphic style was urban tabloid, the paper was well regarded for journalistic quality and did not rely on sensational front-page stories. It typically ran articles from the Washington Post/Los Angeles Times wire service, the advice column Ask Ann Landers debuted in 1943. Ann Landers was the pseudonym of staff writer Ruth Crowley, who answered readers letters until 1955, eppie Lederer, sister of Dear Abby columnist Abigail van Buren, assumed the role thereafter as Ann Landers. Kups Column, written by Irv Kupcinet, also made its first appearance in 1943, Jack Olsen joined the Sun-Times as editor-in-chief in 1954, before moving on to Time and Sports Illustrated magazines and authoring true-crime books. Hired as literary editor in 1955 was Hoke Norris, who covered the civil-rights movement for the Sun-Times. Jerome Holtzman became a member of the Chicago Sun sports department after first being a boy for the Daily News in the 1940s. He and Edgar Munzel, another longtime sportswriter for the paper, famed for his World War II exploits, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Bill Mauldin made the Sun-Times his home base in 1962. The following year, Mauldin drew one of his most renowned illustrations, two years out of college, Roger Ebert became a staff writer in 1966, and a year later was named Sun-Times film critic. He continued in this role for the remainder of his life, after the friend wrote a story about it, Grizzard fired Banks. With that, the employees union intervened, a federal arbitrator ruled for Banks and 13 months later. The articles received considerable publicity and acclaim, but a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize met resistance from some who believed the Mirage series represented a form of entrapment. In March 1978, the afternoon publication the Chicago Daily News, sister paper of the Sun-Times
28.
The Hollywood Reporter
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Headquartered in Los Angeles, THR is part of the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, a group of properties that includes Billboard and SpinMedia. It is owned by Eldridge Industries, a company owned by an executive of its previous owner. Under Janice Min, a faltering THR was relaunched in 2010 as a weekly print magazine with a revamped, continuously updated website, as well as mobile. THR was founded in 1930 by William R, billy Wilkerson as Hollywoods first daily entertainment trade newspaper. The first edition appeared on September 3,1930, and featured Wilkersons front-page Tradeviews column, the newspaper appeared Monday to Saturday for the first 10 years, except for a brief period, then Monday to Friday from 1940. Wilkerson ran the THR until his death in September 1962, although his final column appeared 18 months prior, from the late 1930s, Wilkerson used THR to push the view that the industry was a communist stronghold. In particular, he opposed the screenplay writers trade union, the Screen Writers Guild, in 1946 the Guild considered creating an American Authors Authority to hold copyright for writers, instead of ownership passing to the studios. Wilkerson devoted his Tradeviews column to the issue on July 29,1946 and he went to confession before publishing it, knowing the damage it would cause, but was apparently encouraged by the priest to go ahead with it. The column contained the first industry names, including Dalton Trumbo and Howard Koch, on became the Hollywood blacklist. Eight of the 11 people Wilkerson named were among the Hollywood Ten who were blacklisted after hearings in 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1997 THR reporter David Robb wrote a story about the newspapers involvement, for the blacklists 65th anniversary in 2012, the THR published a lengthy investigative piece about Wilkersons role, by reporters Gary Baum and Daniel Miller. The same edition carried an apology from Wilkersons son, W. R. Wilkerson III and he wrote that his father had been motivated by revenge for his thwarted ambition to own a studio. Wilkersons wife, Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, took over as publisher and she sold the paper on April 11,1988, to Affiliated Publications, parent company of Billboard Publications, for $26.7 million. Robert J. Dowling became THR president in 1988 and editor-in-chief, Dowling brought in Alex Ben Block as editor in 1990, and editorial quality of both news and specials steadily improved. Block and Teri Ritzer dampened much of the coverage and cronyism that had infected the paper under Wilkerson. After Block left, former editor at Variety, Anita Busch, was brought in as editor between 1999 and 2001. Busch was credited with making the paper competitive with Variety, tony Uphoff assumed the publisher position in November 2005. Uphoff was replaced in October 2006 by John Kilcullen, the publisher of Billboard, Kilcullen was a defendant in Billboards infamous dildo lawsuit, in which he was accused of race discrimination and sexual harassment
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CNN
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The Cable News Network is an American basic cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner. It was founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner as a 24-hour cable news channel, upon its launch, CNN was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage, and was the first all-news television channel in the United States. While the news channel has numerous affiliates, CNN primarily broadcasts from the Time Warner Center in New York City and its headquarters at the CNN Center in Atlanta is only used for weekend programming. CNN is sometimes referred to as CNN/U. S. to distinguish the American channel from its sister network. As of August 2010, CNN is available in over 100 million U. S. households, broadcast coverage of the U. S. channel extends to over 890,000 American hotel rooms, as well as carriage on cable and satellite providers throughout Canada. Globally, CNN programming airs through CNN International, which can be seen by viewers in over 212 countries and territories, as of February 2015, CNN is available to about 96,289,000 cable, satellite, and telco television households in the United States. The Cable News Network was launched at 5,00 p. m. Eastern Time on June 1,1980, after an introduction by Ted Turner, the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored the channels first newscast. Burt Reinhardt, the vice president of CNN at its launch, hired most of the channels first 200 employees, including the networks first news anchor. Since its debut, CNN has expanded its reach to a number of cable and satellite providers, several websites. The company has 36 bureaus, more than 900 affiliated local stations, the channels success made a bona-fide mogul of founder Ted Turner and set the stage for conglomerate Time Warners eventual acquisition of the Turner Broadcasting System in 1996. A companion channel, CNN2, was launched on January 1,1982, on January 28,1986, CNN carried the only live television coverage of the launch and subsequent break-up of Space Shuttle Challenger, which killed all seven crew members on board. On October 14,1987, Jessica McClure, an 18-month-old toddler, fell down a well in Midland, CNN quickly reported on the story, and the event helped make its name. This was before correspondents reported live from the capital while American bombs were falling. Before Saddam Hussein held a press conference with a few of the hundreds of Americans he was holding hostage. Before the nation watched, riveted but powerless, as Los Angeles was looted and burned, before O. J. Simpson took a slow ride in a white Bronco, and before everyone close to his case had an agent and a book contract. This was uncharted territory just a time ago. The moment when bombing began was announced on CNN by Bernard Shaw on January 16,1991, as follows, lets describe to our viewers what were seeing. The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated, were seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky
30.
75th Academy Awards
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During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories honoring films released in 2002. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and was directed by Louis J. Horvitz, Actor Steve Martin hosted for the second time, having previously presided over the 73rd ceremony held in 2001. Three weeks earlier in a ceremony at Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California held on March 1, Chicago won six awards including Best Picture. Other winners included The Pianist with three awards, Frida and The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers with two, and Adaptation, Bowling for Columbine, The ChubbChubbs. 8 Mile, The Hours, Nowhere in Africa, Road to Perdition, Spirited Away, Talk to Her, This Charming Man, the telecast garnered about 33 million viewers in the United States, making it the least watched and lowest rated televised Oscar ceremony at the time. Chicago received the most nominations with thirteen and it was the eighth film to receive that many nominations. Gangs of New York came in second with ten, the winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 23,2003. Chicago became the first musical film to win Best Picture since 1968s Oliver, at age 29, Adrien Brody was the youngest person to win Best Actor. With her 13th nomination, Meryl Streep became the most nominated actor in Oscar history, meanwhile, Best Actor nominee Jack Nicholson earned his 12th nomination, extending his record as the most nominated male performer. Julianne Moore was the performer to earn two acting nominations in the same year. Lose Yourself from 8 Mile became the first rap song to win the Best Original Song award, winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger. Peter OToole — Whose remarkable talents have provided cinema history with some of its most memorable characters, the following individuals presented awards or performed musical numbers. In November 2002, the Academy hired veteran Oscar telecast producer Gil Cates to oversee the telecast for the eleventh time. With ten shows under his belt, no other living producer even comes close to the depth of his experience, Gil practically invented the awards show as a stylistic genre. Were privileged to have him present a special event to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Oscars. A few days later, actor and comedian Steve Martin was chosen to emcee the upcoming telecast. Cates explained his reason to bring back the veteran comedian saying, A host whos witty, clever, sharp, intelligent, quick on his feet, according to the article published in the Los Angeles Times, Cates approached actor and veteran Oscar host Billy Crystal for emceeing duties. However, as passed and Crystal was still undecided regarding the job
31.
Academy Award for Best Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Emil Jannings receiving the award for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the branch of AMPAS. In the first three years of the awards, actors were nominated as the best in their categories, at that time, all of their work during the qualifying period was listed after the award. The following year, this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actor is nominated for a performance in a single film. Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year, since its inception, the award has been given to 79 actors. Daniel Day-Lewis has received the most awards in this category with three Oscars, spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier were nominated on nine occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Casey Affleck is the most recent winner in category for his role as Lee Chandler in Manchester by the Sea. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933
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Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
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The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actress who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Gale Sondergaard was the first winner of award for her role in Anthony Adverse. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes, currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Since its inception, the award has given to 78 actresses. Dianne Wiest and Shelley Winters have received the most awards in this category with two awards each, despite winning no awards, Thelma Ritter was nominated on six occasions, more than any other actress. As of the 2017 ceremony, Viola Davis is the most recent winner in category for her role as Rose Maxson in Fences. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Press, inside Oscar, The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York, United States, Ballantine Books, oscars. org Oscar. com The Academy Awards Database
33.
Box Office Mojo
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Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way, founded in 1999. In 2008, Box Office Mojo was bought by the Internet Movie Database, the website is widely used within the film industry as a source of data. From 2002–11, Box Office Mojo had forums popular with film fans, on October 10,2014, the websites URL was redirected to Amazons IMDB. com website for one day, but the website returned the following day without explanation. Brandon Gray began the site in 1999, in 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and grew the site to nearly two million readers. In July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon. com through its subsidiary, Box Office Mojo had forums with more than 16,500 registered users. On November 2,2011 the forums were closed along with any user accounts. Tracking is still very closely to the day by day, actual tabulation of distributors. The site also creates an overall chart, combining all box office returns from around the world, excluding the United States. The overall weekend chart currently tracks the Top 40 films as well as approximately fifty additional films with no ranking, the site additionally has yearly and all time features for its various territories. Box Office Mojo was as of June 2009 reporting limited data from overseas and is work on improvements, most of the international charts have not been updated since November 2014. On October 10,2014, all traffic to Box Office Mojo was redirected to IMDbs box office page, queries about the closure to IMDb and Amazon representatives were met with no response. Neither Brandon Gray, who founded the website but left several years ago after its sale to Amazon, nor Ray Subers, on Ray Subers Twitter account, he revealed the websites return, but also stated he would not answer any questions pertaining to closure. Subers subsequently left the website seven months later
34.
IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
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Flixster
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Flixster is an American social movie site for discovering new movies, learning about movies, and meeting others with similar tastes in movies. The site allows users to view movie trailers as well as learn about the new, the site is based in San Francisco, California and was founded by Joe Greenstein and Saran Chari in 2007. Flixster has been the parent of website Rotten Tomatoes since January 2010, Flixster, including Rotten Tomatoes, was acquired by Fandango on February 17,2016. In February 2016, Fandango acquired Flixster, Fandango began migrating Flixster Video users to its competing service called FandangoNow and will close the Flixster Video service. Between November 2006 and January 2007, the number of page views by Alexa Toolbar users rose from fewer than 20 million per day to around 50 million per day. Alexa no longer provides numbers of page views, but the number of page views as a percentage decreased by almost two thirds from mid-December 2007 to mid-June 2008. Quantcast reports that the number of daily page views for Flixster. com peaked at 8,331,961 on January 23,2008. Flixsters Facebook application, called Movies, has consistently been one of the most popular apps on the site, daily user totals peaked in December 2007. Flixster Collections, an application featuring a content discovery and management system. This was a trend among Facebook applications, attributed to what has been described as app fatigue. Facebook no longer displays daily active use, but instead monthly active use, co-Founder Joe Greenstein has described the difference between Flixster and other sites as, We make it easy to invite your friends. Other sites dont provide good ways for people to spread the word, as a consequence of its policy of emailing users entire address books with advertisements for the site, the website has been criticized on numerous Internet blogs. At one time email from Flixster to Hotmail users was being filtered and deleted as spam, around August 2012, the Flixster website stopped allowing public access. Viewers must log in using an account or Facebook. Recently, Flixster has begun allowing users to watch movies on different platforms via UltraViolet. Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, Orkut Flixster has developed applications for social networking sites. These apps have many of the features as the main Flixster site, such as ratings, reviews. Furthermore, all offered social media integration and mobile app is offered free-of-charge, the first of these applications was released in June 2007 on the Facebook platform
