World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Canvas
A canvas is an durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, marquees and other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags, electronic device cases, shoes. It is popularly used by artists as a painting surface stretched across a wooden frame. Modern canvas is made of cotton or linen, along with polyvinyl chloride, although it was made from hemp, it differs from other heavy cotton fabrics, such as denim, in being plain weave rather than twill weave. Canvas comes in two basic types: plain and duck; the threads in duck canvas are more woven. The term duck comes from the Dutch word for doek. In the United States, canvas is classified in two ways: by a graded number system; the numbers run in reverse of the weight so a number 10 canvas is lighter than number 4. The word "canvas" is derived from the Old French canevas. Both may be derivatives of the Vulgar Latin cannapaceus for "made of hemp," originating from the Greek κάνναβις. Canvas has become the most common support medium for oil painting.
It was used from the 14th century in Italy, but only rarely. One of the earliest surviving oils on canvas is a French Madonna with angels from around 1410 in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, its use in Saint George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello in about 1470, Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus in the 1480s was still unusual for the period. Large paintings for country houses were more to be on canvas, are less to have survived, it was a good deal cheaper than a panel painting, may sometime indicate a painting regarded as less important. In the Uccello, the armour does not use silver leaf. Another common category of paintings on lighter cloth such as linen was in distemper or glue used for banners to be carried in procession; this is a less durable medium, surviving examples such as Dirk Bouts' Entombment, in distemper on linen are rare, rather faded in appearance. Panel painting remained more common until the 16th century in Italy and the 17th century in Northern Europe. Mantegna and Venetian artists were among those leading the change.
Canvas is stretched across a wooden frame called a stretcher and may be coated with gesso before it is to be used. A traditional and flexible chalk gesso is composed of lead carbonate and linseed oil, applied over a rabbit skin glue ground; as lead-based paint is poisonous, care has to be taken in using it. Various alternative and more flexible canvas primers are commercially available, the most popular being a synthetic latex paint composed of titanium dioxide and calcium carbonate, bound with a thermo-plastic emulsion. Many artists have painted onto unprimed canvas, such as Jackson Pollock, Kenneth Noland, Francis Bacon, Helen Frankenthaler, Dan Christensen, Larry Zox, Ronnie Landfield, Color Field painters, Lyrical Abstractionists and others. Staining acrylic paint into the fabric of cotton duck canvas was more benign and less damaging to the fabric of the canvas than the use of oil paint. In 1970 artist Helen Frankenthaler commented about her use of staining: When I first started doing the stain paintings, I left large areas of canvas unpainted, I think, because the canvas itself acted as forcefully and as positively as paint or line or color.
In other words, the ground was part of the medium, so that instead of thinking of it as background or negative space or an empty spot, that area did not need paint because it had paint next to it. The thing was to decide where to leave it and where to fill it and where to say this doesn't need another line or another pail of colors, its saying it in space. Early canvas was made of a sturdy brownish fabric of considerable strength. Linen is suitable for the use of oil paint. In the early 20th century, cotton canvas referred to as "cotton duck," came into use. Linen is composed of higher quality material, remains popular with many professional artists those who work with oil paint. Cotton duck, which stretches more and has an mechanical weave, offers a more economical alternative; the advent of acrylic paint has increased the popularity and use of cotton duck canvas. Linen and cotton derive from two different plants, the flax plant and the cotton plant, respectively. Gessoed canvases on stretchers are available.
They are available in a variety of weights: light-weight is about 4 oz or 5 oz. They are ready for use straight away. Artists desiring greater control of their painting surface may add a coat or two of their preferred gesso. Professional artists who wish to work on canvas may prepare their own canvas in the traditional manner. One of the most outstanding differences between modern painting techniques and those of the Flemish and Dutch Masters is in the preparation of the canvas. "Modern" techniques take advantage of both the canvas texture as well as those of the paint itself. Renaissance masters took extreme measures to ensure that none of the texture of the canvas came through; this required a painstaking, months-long process of laye
Converse (shoe company)
Converse is an American shoe company that produces skating shoes and lifestyle brand footwear and apparel. Founded in 1908, it has been a subsidiary of Nike, Inc. since 2003. During World War II, the company shifted its manufacturing from the public, instead made footwear for the military, it was one of the few producers of athletic shoes and for over a half century the company dominated the American court shoe market. From the 1970s, the company lost its dominant position after other companies presented their own styles. Converse shoes are distinguished by a number of features, including the company's star insignia, the All Star's rubber sole, smooth rounded toe, wrap-around strip. Converse manufactures its products under the Cons, Chuck Taylor All-Star, John Varvatos, Jack Purcell trade names. In addition to apparel and footwear, the company sells other items through retailers in over 160 countries and through 75 company-owned retail stores across the United States, employed 2,658 in the U.
S. in 2015. At age 47, Marquis Mills Converse, a manager at a footwear manufacturing firm, opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in February 1908 in Malden, Massachusetts; the company was a rubber shoe manufacturer, providing winterized rubber soled footwear for men and children. By 1910, Converse was producing shoes daily, but it was not until 1915 that the company began manufacturing athletic shoes; the company's catalyst came in 1917. In 1923, a basketball player named Charles H. "Chuck" Taylor walked into Converse complaining of sore feet. Converse gave him a job: he worked as a salesman and ambassador, promoting the shoes around the U. S. and in 1932 Taylor's signature was added to the All-Star patch on the classic, high-topped sneakers. He continued this work until shortly before his death in 1969. Converse customized shoes for the New York Renaissance, the first all–African American professional basketball team. In 1962, center Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scored 100 points in an NBA game while wearing a pair of Chucks, taking a 169–147 victory over the New York Knicks in Hershey, Pennsylvania on March 2.
When the U. S. entered World War II in 1941, Converse shifted production to manufacturing rubberized footwear and protective suits for the military. The company resumed production of athletic footwear after the war's end. Popular during the 1950s and 1960s, Converse promoted an American image with its Converse Basketball Yearbook. Artist Charles Kerins created cover art that celebrated Converse's role in the lives of high school and college athletes. In the 1970s, Converse purchased the trademark rights to Jack Purcell sneakers from B. F. Goodrich. Converse lost their monopoly from the 1970s onward, with new competitors, including Puma and Adidas Nike a decade Reebok, who introduced new designs to the sports market. Converse found themselves no longer the official shoe of the National Basketball Association, a title they had relished for many years; the chevron and star insignia—a logo that remains on a large portion of Converse footwear other than the All Star—was created by Jim Labadini, an employee.
Canvas-rubber shoes regained popularity in the 1980s as casual footwear, but Converse became over-dependent on the "All Stars" brand, whose market collapsed by 1989–1990. By the year 2000, Converse was slipping into receivership as debt piled up yearly. Converse filed for bankruptcy on January 22, 2001. Not too long after, on March 30, its last manufacturing plants in the U. S. closed down, as production moved overseas. In April 2001, Footwear Acquisitions, led by Marsden Cason and Bill Simon, purchased the brand from bankruptcy and added industry partners Jack Boys, Jim Stroesser, Lisa Kempa, David Maddocks to lead the turnaround. In July 2003, Nike paid $309 million to acquire Converse. Nike approached the 1980s revival around 2010 to relaunch the footwear. Nike expanded the Converse brand to other businesses apart from shoes, much akin to its other brands. By November 2012, Converse had disappeared from the NBA, as the last dozen players wearing the brand either left the NBA or switched shoes over a period of a year and a half.
Carlos Arroyo went overseas in late 2011, Maurice Evans last played for the Washington Wizards in April 2012. Nine switched to Nike: Acie Law in late 2011. Udonis Haslem, the last NBA player wearing Converse on the court, followed Miami Heat teammate Dwyane Wade to switch to Li-Ning in late November 2012. Celebrities who have worn Converse include Snoop Dogg, Kristen Stewart and Rihanna and, the Creator; the growth of Converse as a casual fashion accessory contributed to $1.7 billion in revenue in 2014 and $2 billion in 2015. In January 2013, Converse announced plans for a new headquarters building, moved in April 2015, it was constructed near North Station in downtown Boston, on the Lovejoy Wharf, overlooking the Charles River as part of a major site overhaul and restoration of public waterfront access. The 10-story 214,000-square-foot office building includes a permanent music recording studio for the new "Converse Rubber Tracks" project, 5,000-square-foot gym with a separate yoga studio designed in partnership with Nike, a new 3,500-square-foot retail Flagship Store.
An improved model of the Chuck Taylor All-Star, the Chuck Taylor II, was announced by company management in July, 2015. The Chuck Taylor II's were released on July 28, 2015. Incorpo
Neoprene
Neoprene is a family of synthetic rubbers that are produced by polymerization of chloroprene. Neoprene maintains flexibility over a wide temperature range. Neoprene is sold either as solid rubber or in latex form and is used in a wide variety of applications, such as laptop sleeves, orthopaedic braces, electrical insulation and sheet applied elastomeric membranes or flashings, automotive fan belts. Neoprene is produced by free-radical polymerization of chloroprene. In commercial production, this polymer is prepared by free radical emulsion polymerization. Polymerization is initiated using potassium persulfate. Bifunctional nucleophiles, metal oxides, thioureas are used to crosslink individual polymer strands. Neoprene was invented by DuPont scientists on April 17, 1930 after Dr Elmer K. Bolton of DuPont attended a lecture by Fr Julius Arthur Nieuwland, a professor of chemistry at the University of Notre Dame. Nieuwland's research was focused on acetylene chemistry and during the course of his work he produced divinyl acetylene, a jelly that firms into an elastic compound similar to rubber when passed over sulfur dichloride.
After DuPont purchased the patent rights from the university, Wallace Carothers of DuPont took over commercial development of Nieuwland's discovery in collaboration with Nieuwland himself. Arnold Collins at DuPont focused on monovinyl acetylene and allowed it to react with hydrogen chloride gas, manufacturing chloroprene. DuPont first marketed the compound in 1931 under the trade name DuPrene, but its commercial possibilities were limited by the original manufacturing process, which left the product with a foul odor. A new process was developed, which eliminated the odor-causing byproducts and halved production costs, the company began selling the material to manufacturers of finished end-products. To prevent shoddy manufacturers from harming the product's reputation, the trademark DuPrene was restricted to apply only to the material sold by DuPont. Since the company itself did not manufacture any DuPrene-containing end products, the trademark was dropped in 1937 and replaced with a generic name, neoprene, in an attempt "to signify that the material is an ingredient, not a finished consumer product".
DuPont worked extensively to generate demand for its product, implementing a marketing strategy that included publishing its own technical journal, which extensively publicized neoprene's uses as well as advertising other companies' neoprene-based products. By 1939, sales of neoprene were generating profits over $300,000 for the company. Neoprene resists degradation more than synthetic rubber; this relative inertness makes it well suited for demanding applications such as gaskets and corrosion-resistant coatings. It can be used as a base for adhesives, noise isolation in power transformer installations, as padding in external metal cases to protect the contents while allowing a snug fit, it resists burning better than hydrocarbon based rubbers, resulting in its appearance in weather stripping for fire doors and in combat related attire such as gloves and face masks. Because of its tolerance of extreme conditions, neoprene is used to line landfills. Neoprene's burn point is around 260 °C. In its native state, neoprene is a pliable rubber-like material with insulating properties similar to rubber or other solid plastics.
Neoprene foam is produced in either closed-cell or open-cell form. The closed-cell form is less compressible and more expensive; the open-cell form can be breathable. It is manufactured by foaming the rubber with nitrogen gas, where the tiny enclosed and separated gas bubbles can serve as insulation. Nitrogen gas is most used for the foaming of Neoprene foam due to its inertness, flame resistance, large range of processing temperatures. Neoprene is used as a load bearing base between two prefabricated reinforced concrete elements or steel plates as well to evenly guide force from one element to another. Neoprene is a popular material in making protective clothing for aquatic activities. Foamed neoprene is used to make fly fishing waders and wetsuits, as it provides excellent insulation against cold; the foam is quite buoyant, divers compensate for this by wearing weights. Thick wet suits made at the extreme end of their cold water protection are made of 7 mm thick neoprene. Since foam neoprene contains gas pockets, the material compresses under water pressure, getting thinner at greater depths.
A recent advance in neoprene for wet suits is the "super-flex" variety, which mixes spandex into the neoprene for greater flexibility. Neoprene waders are about 5 mm thick, in the medium price range as compared to cheaper materials such as nylon and more expensive waterproof fabrics made with breathable membranes. Competitive swimming wetsuits are made of the most expanded foam; the downside is. Neoprene has become a favorite material for lifestyle and other home accessories including laptop sleeves, tablet holders, remote controls, mouse pads, cycling chamois. In this market, it sometimes competes with LRPu, a sturdier but less-used material; the Rhodes piano used hammer tips made of neoprene in its electric pianos, after changing from felt hammers around 1970. Neoprene is used for speaker cones and drum practice pads."4 Great Drum Mutes". Making Music. February 2
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol was an American artist and producer, a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture, advertising that flourished by the 1960s, span a variety of media, including painting, photography and sculpture; some of his best known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans and Marilyn Diptych, the experimental film Chelsea Girls, the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Warhol pursued a successful career as a commercial illustrator. After exhibiting his work in several galleries in the late 1950s, he began to receive recognition as an influential and controversial artist, his New York studio, The Factory, became a well-known gathering place that brought together distinguished intellectuals, drag queens, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrities, wealthy patrons. He promoted a collection of personalities known as Warhol superstars, is credited with coining the used expression "15 minutes of fame."
In the late 1960s, he managed and produced the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground and founded Interview magazine. He authored numerous books, including The Philosophy of Andy Popism: The Warhol Sixties, he lived as a gay man before the gay liberation movement. After gallbladder surgery, Warhol died of cardiac arrhythmia in February 1987 at the age of 58. Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions and feature and documentary films; the Andy Warhol Museum in his native city of Pittsburgh, which holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archives, is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to a single artist. Many of his creations are collectible and valuable; the highest price paid for a Warhol painting is US$105 million for a 1963 canvas titled Silver Car Crash. A 2009 article in The Economist described Warhol as the "bellwether of the art market". Warhol was born on August 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was the fourth child of Ondrej Warhola and Julia, whose first child was born in their homeland and died before their move to the U.
S. His parents were working-class Lemko emigrants from Austria-Hungary. Warhol's father emigrated to the United States in 1914, his mother joined him in 1921, after the death of Warhol's grandparents. Warhol's father worked in a coal mine; the family lived at 55 Beelen Street and at 3252 Dawson Street in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The family was attended St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church. Andy Warhol had two older brothers—Pavol, the oldest, was born before the family emigrated. Pavol's son, James Warhola, became a successful children's book illustrator. In third grade, Warhol had Sydenham's chorea, the nervous system disease that causes involuntary movements of the extremities, believed to be a complication of scarlet fever which causes skin pigmentation blotchiness. At times when he was confined to bed, he drew, listened to the radio and collected pictures of movie stars around his bed. Warhol described this period as important in the development of his personality, skill-set and preferences.
When Warhol was 13, his father died in an accident. As a teenager, Warhol graduated from Schenley High School in 1945; as a teen, Warhol won a Scholastic Art and Writing Award. After graduating from high school, his intentions were to study art education at the University of Pittsburgh in the hope of becoming an art teacher, but his plans changed and he enrolled in the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he studied commercial art. During his time there, Warhol joined the campus Beaux Arts Society, he served as art director of the student art magazine, illustrating a cover in 1948 and a full-page interior illustration in 1949. These are believed to be his first two published artworks. Warhol earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in pictorial design in 1949; that year, he moved to New York City and began a career in magazine illustration and advertising. Warhol's early career was dedicated to commercial and advertising art, where his first commission had been to draw shoes for Glamour magazine in the late 1940s.
In the 1950s, Warhol worked as a designer for shoe manufacturer Israel Miller. American photographer John Coplans recalled, he somehow gave each shoe a temperament of its own, a sort of sly, Toulouse-Lautrec kind of sophistication, but the shape and the style came through and the buckle was always in the right place. The kids in the apartment noticed that the vamps on Andy's shoe drawings kept getting longer and longer but Miller didn't mind. Miller loved them. Warhol's "whimsical" ink drawings of shoe advertisements figured in some of his earliest showings at the Bodley Gallery in New York. Warhol was an early adopter of the silk screen printmaking process as a technique for making paintings. A young Warhol was taught silk screen printmaking techniques by Max Arthur Cohn at his graphic arts business in Manhattan. While working in the shoe industry, Warhol developed his "blotted line" technique, applying ink to paper and blotting the ink while still wet
Mike Myers
Michael John Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian and film producer. He is known for his run as a performer on Saturday Night Live from 1989 to 1995, for playing the title roles in the Wayne's World, Austin Powers, Shrek films, he made his directorial debut with the documentary Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon. He has stepped away from acting for the most part since the third Shrek movie, he had a small role in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and a supporting role in Bohemian Rhapsody. Myers was born on May 25, 1963, in Scarborough, a suburban district in the east side of Toronto, Ontario, he is the son of English-born parents Eric Myers, an insurance agent, his wife, Alice E. Myers, an office supervisor and a veteran of the Royal Air Force. Both of his parents were from Liverpool, United Kingdom, he has two older brothers, Paul, an indie rock singer-songwriter and author, Peter, who worked for Sears Canada; the family is of English and Irish ancestry. Myers was raised Protestant.
He holds Canadian, U. S. and British citizenship. Myers grew up in suburban Toronto districts, both North York and Scarborough, where he attended Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute, he graduated from Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute in 1982. Myers began performing in commercials at two years old. At the age of ten, he made a commercial for British Columbia Hydro, with Gilda Radner playing his mother. At 12, he made a guest appearance as Ari on the TV series King of Kensington. After graduating from high school, Myers was accepted into The Second City Canadian touring company, he moved to the United Kingdom, where in 1985 he was one of the founding members of The Comedy Store Players, an improvisational group based at The Comedy Store in London. The next year, he starred in the British children's TV program Wide Awake Club, parodying the show's normal exuberance with his own "Sound Asleep Club", in partnership with Neil Mullarkey, he returned to Toronto and The Second City in 1986 as a cast member in The Second City's Toronto main stage show, Second City Theatre.
In 1988, he moved from Second City in Toronto to Chicago. In Chicago, he trained and taught at the Improv Olympic. Myers made many appearances, including as Wayne Campbell, on Toronto's Citytv in the early 1980s, on the alternative video show City Limits hosted by Christopher Ward. Myers appeared as Wayne Campbell in the music video for Ward's Canadian hit "Boys and Girls"; the Wayne Campbell character was featured extensively in the 1986 summer series It's Only Rock & Roll, produced by Toronto's Insight Production Company for CBC Television. Wayne appeared both in studio and in a series of location sketches directed and edited by Allan Novak. Myers wrote another sketch, "Kurt and Dieter", co-starring with Second City's Dana Andersen and directed by Novak, which would turn into the popular "Sprockets" sketch on Saturday Night Live. Myers made his film debut when he and Dana Carvey adapted their Wayne's World Saturday Night Live sketches into the feature Wayne's World, it was among the most successful films of the year and was followed in 1993 by Wayne's World 2.
He took a two-year hiatus from performing after the end of his time as an SNL regular. Myers returned to acting with the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, followed by the sequels Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers in Goldmember. Myers played the villain, as well as other characters, in all three films. One of Myers' rare non-comedic roles came in the film 54, in which he portrayed Steve Rubell, proprietor of New York City's famous 1970s discotheque Studio 54; the film was commercially successful, though Myers received some positive notice. In June 2000, Myers was sued by Universal Pictures for US$3.8 million for backing out of a contract to play Dieter, the SNL character, in a feature film. Myers said he refused to honor the US$20 million contract because he did not want to cheat moviegoers with an unacceptable script—one that he himself had written. Myers countersued, a settlement was reached after several months where Myers agreed to make another film with Universal.
That film was The Cat in the Hat, released in November 2003 and starred Myers as the title character. In 2001, Myers provided the voice of Shrek in the DreamWorks animated film of the same name, having taken over the role after original planned voice actor Chris Farley died in December 1997, he reprised this role in Shrek 4-D in 2003, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, the Christmas special Shrek the Halls. Myers received the MTV Generation Award in June 2007, making him the second Canadian to win the award. In 2008, Myers co-wrote, co-produced, starred in The Love Guru. In 2009, he played the part of British general Ed Fenech, in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. In 2010 Myers returned for Shrek Forever After. Myers returned to onscreen film acting with supporting roles in Bohemian Rhapsody. Myers made a cameo appearance in Britney Spears' music video "Boys" as Austin Powers. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted among the top 50 comedy acts by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.
Myers is a member of the band Ming Tea along with The Bangles' guitarist and vocalist Susanna Hoffs and musician Matthew Sweet. They performed the songs "BBC" and "Daddy. In 2011 Myers returned to The Comedy Store in London to perform a one-time repris
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker. Hanks is known for his comedic and dramatic roles in such films as Splash, Turner & Hooch, A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, Apollo 13, You've Got Mail, The Green Mile, Cast Away, Road to Perdition, Cloud Atlas, Captain Phillips, Saving Mr. Banks, Sully, he has starred in the Robert Langdon film series, voices Sheriff Woody in the Toy Story film series. He is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, is regarded as an American cultural icon. Hanks has collaborated with film director Steven Spielberg on five films to date: Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, Bridge of Spies, The Post, as well as the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers, which launched Hanks as a successful director and screenwriter. In 2010, Spielberg and Hanks were executive producers on the HBO miniseries The Pacific. Hanks' films have grossed more than $4.6 billion at U. S. and Canadian box offices and more than $9.2 billion worldwide, making him the fourth highest-grossing actor in North America.
Hanks has been nominated for numerous awards during his career. He won a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia, as well as a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a People's Choice Award for Best Actor for Forrest Gump. In 1995, Hanks became one of only two actors who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in consecutive years, with Spencer Tracy being the other. In 2004, he received the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2014, he received a Kennedy Center Honor, in 2016, he received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, as well as the French Legion of Honor. Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California on July 9, 1956, to hospital worker Janet Marylyn and itinerant cook Amos Mefford Hanks, his mother was of Portuguese descent. His parents divorced in 1960, their three oldest children, Sandra and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, remained with their mother in Red Bluff, California.
In his childhood, Hanks' family moved often. While Hanks' family religious history was Catholic and Mormon, he has characterized his teenage self as being a "Bible-toting evangelical" for several years. In school, he was unpopular with students and teachers alike telling Rolling Stone magazine, "I was a geek, a spaz. I was horribly, painfully shy. At the same time, I was the guy, but I didn't get into trouble. I was always a real good kid and pretty responsible." In 1965, his father married a San Francisco native of Chinese descent. Frances had three children. Hanks acted in school plays, including South Pacific, while attending Skyline High School in Oakland, California. Hanks studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward and transferred to California State University, two years later. During a 2001 interview with Bob Costas, Hanks was asked whether he would rather have an Oscar or a Heisman Trophy, he replied. He told New York magazine in 1986, "Acting classes looked like the best place for a guy who liked to make a lot of noise and be rather flamboyant.
I spent a lot of time going to plays. I wouldn't take dates with me. I'd just drive to a theater, buy myself a ticket, sit in the seat and read the program, get into the play completely. I spent a lot of time like that, seeing Brecht, Tennessee Williams and all that."During his years studying theater, Hanks met Vincent Dowling, head of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. At Dowling's suggestion, Hanks became an intern at the festival, his internship stretched into a three-year experience that covered most aspects of theater production, including lighting, set design, stage management, prompting Hanks to drop out of college. During the same time, Hanks won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his 1978 performance as Proteus in Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the few times he played a villain. Time magazine named Hanks one of the "Top 10 College Dropouts." In 1979, Hanks moved to New York City, where he made his film debut in the low-budget slasher film He Knows You're Alone and landed a starring role in the television movie Mazes and Monsters.
Early that year, he was cast in the lead, Callimaco, in the Riverside Shakespeare Company's production of Niccolò Machiavelli's The Mandrake, directed by Daniel Southern. The following year, Hanks landed one of the lead roles, that of character Kip Wilson, on the ABC television pilot of Bosom Buddies, he and Peter Scolari played a pair of young advertising men forced to dress as women so they could live in an inexpensive all-female hotel. Hanks had partnered with Scolari on the 1970s game show Make Me Laugh. After landing the role, Hanks moved to Los Angeles. Bosom Buddies ran for two seasons, although the ratings were never strong, television critics gave the program high marks. "The first day I saw him on the set," co-producer Ian Praiser told Rolling Stone, "I thought,'Too bad he won't be in tel
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